He said stabilizing erratic foreign exchange and commodities markets will feature high on France's agenda when it heads the Group of 20 from November. He added there is a need to reduce the U.S. dollar's dominance as the reserve currency of choice and called for a greater role for alternative currencies.

Better coordination of global economic policies aimed at unwinding world imbalances is key to reducing foreign exchange volatility, Sarkozy said. Another way to achieve better currency stability will be for the G-20 to try to prevent the accumulation of excessive foreign exchange reserves among its members, particularly in emerging countries, he added.

But he suggested that a conference of experts could be held, possibly in China, to discuss the future of the monetary system without "taboos." "Since the 1970s, we've been living in a nonexistent international monetary system," he remarked. Monitoring global exchange rates has until now been the exclusive remit of the group of the world's seven most industrialized countries, which doesn't include China.

The global monetary system should also be more multipolar and not rely solely on the U.S. dollar as the world's main reserve currency, Sarkozy added. Noting that there's increased interest in the Special Drawing Right, a monetary unit used by countries in their transactions with the International Monetary Fund, Sarkozy said that the international monetary system would be reinforced if countries could use an international reserve asset that's not issued by only one nation, like the U.S. dollar.