French President Nicolas Sarkozy has called for greater integration between France and Germany to save the euro, including changing the terms of the 1999 Maastricht Treaty.
Speaking in Toulon, Sarkozy said he would meet with his German counterpart, Angela Merkel, on Monday to discuss further measures to save the beleaguered economic zone, to lift Europe out of its debt crisis and to "guarantee" its future.
The eurozone economies cannot survive without coming together, he said, while emphasising that France would not give up its sovereignty.
"France will push with Germany for a new European treaty refounding and rethinking the organization of Europe," Sarkozy said. "The Maastricht Treaty has revealed itself to be imperfect."
"There can be no common currency without economic convergence without which the euro will be too strong for some, too weak for others, and the eurozone will break up," said the French president, adding that greater financial discipline is required with penalties for those countries that do not meet their responsibilities.
Altering the 1999 Maastricht Treaty will take the agreement of all 27 signatories, despite the fact that only 17 of those countries use the euro.
The process of reforming the treaty "will be long and difficult", he said, while admitting that the eurozone’s response to the current crisis was not quick enough.
“The crisis has not finished,” he warned.
Sarkozy is due to meet with David Cameron on Friday.
The speech came amid a stark warning from the governor of the Bank of England, Mervyn King, that British banks should look to increase their capital buffers to guard against the "exceptionally threatening" current market crisis.