Sarkozy says wants debate on ECB's growth role

(PARIS) - French President Nicolas Sarkozy vowed Sunday that if he is reelected he will launch a debate on the role of the European Central bank in supporting growth in eurozone nations.

"We will also open the debate on the role of the Central Bank in supporting growth and will move Europe forward," Sarkozy told a campaign rally in central Paris ahead of the April 22 first round of the presidential election.

"I want to discuss not only the problem of frontiers but also that of the role of the Central Bank in supporting growth. This is a question that we cannot avoid. Because if Europe doesn't want to lose its footing in the world economy, it absolutely needs growth.

"If the Central Bank doesn't support growth we will not have enough growth," Sarkozy said, noting the rules limiting he ECB's margin for movement set down in the Maastricht Treaty

The ECB's role, as laid down in the treaty, is to survey monetary policy and budgetary discipline in the eurozone and to keep an eye on inflation.

Sarkozy's Socialist rival in the presidential election, Francois Hollande, said last month he would seek to renegotiate the European Union's new budget pact aimed at overcoming the debt crisis currently gripping the eurozone.

He has also said that he would implement growth stimulus measures if elected, insisting that the austerity foreseen by the pact is not enough, and he would "change the way the BCE intervenes" in economies.