FRENCH President Nicolas Sarkozy urged an end to the US dollar's global dominance, warning that its weakness poses an "unacceptable'' threat to European competitiveness.

"The monetary disorder has become unacceptable,'' said Mr Sarkozy, who later this month is due to address the world economic forum in Davos.

"The world is multipolar, the monetary system must become multi-monetary,'' he said in an apparent call for other currencies to be promoted over the greenback.

The dollar has weakened considerably against the euro in the past year, making euro-priced exports more expensive and putting eurozone producers at a competitive disadvantage.

Mr Sarkozy said on Wednesday that the dollar's weakness posed a "considerable'' problem for French businesses and should be "at the centre of international debate''.

Overnight he told a Paris conference on new approaches to capitalism that ``we cannot fight in Europe to improve the competitiveness of our businesses ... and have a dollar that is losing half of its value''.

Mr Sarkozy's office has said he is due on January 27 to give the inaugural speech at the annual forum of world political and business leaders in the Swiss resort of Davos, becoming the first French president to attend the gathering.

He took a harsh stance during the global crisis against freewheeling capitalist practices and pushed hard for a stricter line on bank regulation and tax evasion, taking a vocal role among leaders of the G20 grouping.

He has said he wants to transform the international monetary system when France takes over the leadership of the G20 in 2011.

Mr Sarkozy's view gained the backing of the Nobel Prize-winning US economist Joseph Stiglitz, who was taking part in the Paris conference.

The French president "articulated ... some of the problems with the global financial system, the currency and how it is putting Europe at a disadvantage,'' said Prof Stiglitz, who was an adviser to former US president Bill Clinton.

"A dollar-based system ... might have made sense in the 20th century but doesn't make sense in the 21th century.''

Overnight, the euro fell to $US1.4353, having traded late last year around $US1.50 levels.

