Senior European politicians and central bankers are intensifying their efforts to win support for the euro following a weekend meeting between the French and Germans aimed at promoting co-operation and public investment in Europe.
The German Finance Minister, Mr Hans Eichel, said Germany and France favoured a stable European currency.
Speaking at a news conference after a meeting of the French and German finance ministers and central bank governors in the southern French town of Aix-en-Provence, Mr Eichel said: "All four of us here agreed very precisely . . . we want a strong, a stable euro. We are not looking for a weak euro. There is no reason to judge the current situation in any negative way."
The euro has weakened notably recently, partly due to worries about the war in Kosovo. The currency saw some improvement late last week as hopes of a resolution to the crisis emerged.
The euro stood at around $1.0750 late on Friday as the currency markets kept a close eye on developments in the Balkans.
France and Germany agreed in Aix-en-Provence to promote co-operation and public investment in Europe to close the gap in a high-tech revolution that has spawned lasting growth and low unemployment in the US.
Finance ministers from Europe's two powerhouse economies, inspired by years of healthy US expansion driven by Internet and related technologies, said they would use their influence to push the EU down the same road.
Part of the strategy would be to tap funds for innovative firms from the European Investment Bank, with a proposal to their EU partners for two billion euros from the bank.
France's Finance Minister, Mr Dominique Strauss-Kahn, and Mr Eichel said catching up in the technology race would boost Europe's long-term growth prospects and cut joblessness, running at over twice the US level of 4.5 per cent.
"What's most significant is how long the US growth cycle has lasted," Mr Strauss-Kahn said. This was due to a healthy mix of low interest rates, control of public finances and the US lead in booming new technologies.
"Global growth has been driven by the Americans. Our US partners are right to say we should share the growth effort.
"The issue is seeing what we can learn from each other, what we can do together," he said, highlighting that half of the US economic growth was now generated by cutting-edge, high-tech industries.
Mr Eichel said the stronger US growth rate was part of the reason for the euro currency's lacklustre performance against the dollar and a hoped-for upturn in European growth would reverse the euro slide of the past several months.
He said both ministers along with Bundesbank chief Mr Hans Tietmeyer and Bank of France governor Mr Jean-Claude Trichet all wanted a "strong, solid" euro but did not judge the current level abnormal.
The two ministers were hopeful that their respective economies, which account for more than half the wealth of the 11-nation euro zone, would pick up later this year.
The vice-president of the European Central Bank, Mr Christian Noyer, said at the weekend he was satisfied at the euro's recent steadying.
"It is likely that the financial markets have begun to realise the euro's potential to appreciate," Mr Noyer told the Italian business daily Il Sole 24 Ore. "The stabilisation that has taken place in recent days seems to us totally satisfactory," he added.
Italian Treasury Minister Mr Carlo Azeglio Ciampi said at the weekend that Europe needed a stable euro, not a strong one. "Some people expected a strong euro but I always distinguish between a strong euro and a solid one," Mr Ciampi said at a conference in the lakeside town of Stresa.
