(PARIS) - French presidential frontrunner Nicolas Sarkozy called Monday for talks on weakening the euro, in an election programme focused on creating jobs and boosting growth.

The right-wing candidate spelled out plans to bring unemployment -- a front-burner issue in the campaign for the April 22 vote -- down to five percent from its current rate of 8.4 percent, one of the highest in Europe.

He took a swipe at the strength of the euro, saying that France was the victim of "monetary dumping" from the United States, China and Japan, whose currencies he said were undervalued.

Sarkozy called for greater harmonisation of policies between the 13 member-states of the eurozone and asserted that the strength of the euro was harming European exports.

"We certainly didn't join the eurozone so that our growth figures would be one or two percent behind the others," Sarkozy told a news conference to present his official election programme.

He called for "a true consultation" on monetary policy between the Eurogroup club of finance ministers and the European Central Bank (ECB).

With the first round of voting 20 days away, Sarkozy vowed to move quickly to tackle France's economic ills, saying many of his proposed measures would be put into motion this summer -- if he wins victory in the May 6 runoff.

"We are going to put fuel into the French economy right away," he vowed.

Although the French economy is riding the wave of a broader European economic upswing, its growth trailed its European partners last year, rising only 2.1 percent compared with 2.6 percent for both Germany and the 13-nation eurozone.

Sarkozy reiterated his proposal for some overtime hours to be tax-free and pledged to pare down the public service by replacing only half of all retiring state employees.

His strategy to boost consumer spending provides for reducing social charges and taxes on employee paychecks to bring the deductions in line with the European average.

He also said he was considering legislation that would bar the state from "going into debt over anything other than investment expenditures," suggesting a freeze on government spending.

Sarkozy, 52, left office as interior minister a week ago to concentrate on his election campaign as the candidate of the governing Union for a Popular Movement (UMP).

With polls showing he is maintaining his lead over Socialist rival Segolene Royal, Sarkozy emphasized that he had concrete ideas on tackling France's economic problems.

But Francois Hollande, the head of the Socialist Party, said that Sarkozy's package of economic remedies showed that "above all, he is the continuator" of President Jacques Chirac, who is stepping down after 12 years in power.

Hollande recalled that Sarkozy served in the government that had put France at the bottom of the class on economic performance in Europe, with high unemployment and slow growth.

He also noted that Sarkozy was criticising the ECB's monetary policy even though the government had endorsed the appointment of Jean-Claude Trichet as the bank's president.

"Who named Mr. Trichet to the head of the ECB? In what kind of government was Mr. Sarkozy serving to have accepted such an appointment?", said Hollande, who is also Royal's partner.

Sarkozy stressed that bringing down unemployment was an economic imperative after decades of joblessness.

"I know that it's possible, and more importantly I am sure that we have no other choice," he said.

"France has become the country in Europe that works the least. This is at the root of its economic drop-out, the poverty of so many families, the debt and its deficits, because the state is ruining itself by taking responsibility for the social consequences of unemployment."

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