Gordon Brown has warned France could be the next European country to be "picked off" by markets, as Italy prepares to vote on a crucial austerity budget.
“France is in danger of being picked off by the markets in the coming weeks and months,” he said in a speech in Moscow on Friday.
The former prime minister urged a new global growth agreement to be drawn up by President Sarkozy, the current G20 chairman: “The G-20 under Mr Sarkozy should look at a global growth pact and allow the rest of the world to support the EU.
“There has to be a global growth agreement between the major powers. China will not grow to employ an additional 40 million people if foreign markets don’t grow.”
Brown has previously called for "radical action" to combat the eurozone crisis. In a meeting with Huffington Post staff in October Brown was not optimistic about Europe's financial leaders, saying that action was coming "too late"
"Every time there's a crisis, they take action that is too little and too late, and so the next time you have to deal with the next problem, it's a bigger problem, and you have to take even more radical action," Brown said. "You move from what was perhaps a manageable problem to a situation that has gone out of control because it hasn't been dealt with adequately."