Ms. Lagarde’s comments echoed remarks last week by Britain’s foreign secretary, David Miliband, who urged America’s presidential candidates to stay committed to free trade. Both contenders for the Democratic nomination, Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton, have vowed to renegotiate the North American Free Trade Agreement.

Image Frances finance minister, Christine Lagarde, said the weak United States dollar was a central cause of high oil prices. Credit... Stephane De Sakutin/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images

Ms. Lagarde said the euro’s surge against the dollar and the Chinese yuan was “not helpful  it’s a major misalignment.”

“A rebalancing of currencies would be good for all economies,” she added.

That view is increasingly shared by countries in the Group of 7, she said. Henry M. Paulson Jr., the United States Treasury secretary, “is sincere when he says he wants a strong dollar” and has been taking actions quietly in the mortgage markets to reduce the impact of the subprime crisis, she said.

France has lobbied for lower interest rates among countries using the euro and has suggested that the European Central Bank broaden its mandate to include bolstering economic growth, beyond its goal of controlling inflation. While Ms. Lagarde said that the bank’s president, Jean-Claude Trichet, was right to be concerned about inflation, she said he was “overly focused” on it.

The French president, Nicolas Sarkozy, has not yet discussed his specific objectives when France assumes the presidency of the European Union on July 1. Ms. Lagarde declined to give details about her aims. But she said she hoped to forge a consensus on a stricter rule book in the banking and insurance sector, including “coordinated supervision” across the 27-member bloc.