PARIS (Reuters) - France's Nicolas Sarkozy stepped up his demand on Tuesday to give the European Central Bank a bigger role in driving growth, despite a German rebuff, in a quest to convince voters five days from an election that he is the best defender of the economy.
Sarkozy raised hackles in Berlin by declaring at a weekend campaign rally that he wanted a debate on having the ECB direct its exchange rate policy to prop up growth, breaching a November agreement not to publicly discuss the bank's role.
The conservative president, losing momentum in opinion polls, told France Inter radio that giving the ECB a pro-growth role would not require modifying European treaties or throw the bank's independence into question.
"It is not possible that the ECB does not participate in supporting growth, like all the central banks in the world," Sarkozy said, citing China's use of the yuan exchange rate to boost its export-led economic output.
"It is wrong to say that just because the ECB is independent, we do not have the right to talk."
Sarkozy is locked in battle, primarily over the economy, with Socialist Francois Hollande, who has a double-digit lead in opinion polls for a May 6 presidential runoff that would follow a first-round vote next Sunday between 10 candidates.
An Ipsos opinion poll published late on Monday put Hollande and Sarkozy neck and neck on 27 percent each in the first round, ahead of far-right leader Marine Le Pen with 15.5 percent and hard leftist Jean-Luc Melenchon with 14.5 percent.
It gave Hollande 56 percent support for the May 6 runoff, up one point from a week earlier and 12 points ahead of Sarkozy at 44 percent, a decline of one point.
The two rivals have sparred furiously over the economy, with Sarkozy warning that a Socialist victory could scare investors and Hollande saying any darkening of France's credit outlook would reflect Sarkozy's record, not his own arrival in office.
DUEL FOR VOTES
Sarkozy's reopening of the ECB's role came nearly three months after Hollande called in his election manifesto for the central bank's mandate to be widened to promoting growth and employment as well as price stability.
The Socialist says that if elected he would demand a renegotiation of Europe's recently agreed budget discipline pact to add pro-growth clauses.
Berlin steadfastly opposes any extension of the ECB's mission and sees capping inflation as the best way to promote growth, as that keeps down medium and long-term interest rates.
Sarkozy said he was not trying to change the bank's mandate, which is limited to maintaining price stability, unlike the U.S. Federal Reserve, which has a double mandate to ensure moderate inflation and also sustain employment.
In a system of freely floating currencies, the central bank can only infuence exchange rates via its interest rate policy and through the money supply.
Pressing for a cheaper euro to boost French exports of aircraft, luxury goods and cereals is popular with voters, and Sarkozy took a similar stance in his 2007 election campaign without ever following through on it.
On Tuesday, Sarkozy welcomed a recent slight decline in the euro-dollar rate, saying: "Each time the euro loses a centime (against the dollar), it's one billion extra in competitiveness for Airbus."
(Reporting by Emmanuel Jarry and Catherine Bremer; Editing by Christian Plumb and Paul Taylor)
