"Today, we need a new Bretton Woods. We cannot have, on the one hand, a multipolar world and, on the other, a single benchmark currency across the globe," Sarkozy said in his keynote address to the World Economic Forum (WEF) annual meeting in Davos.

He stressed that people should not look at the post-crisis world in the same way as before. "Each of us must hold the conviction that the world of tomorrow can not be the same as the world of yesterday."

Measures must be taken to change world governance, to regulate the economy and to clean up public finances, otherwise the world's recovery can not be sustainable, he warned.

He added that globalization had "skidded out of control" and there is a necessity for rebuilding capitalism by restoring its moral dimension.

The French leader also expressed support to a reform plan proposed by his US counterpart Barack Obama to limit the size of banks and curb bonuses and risky trading.

He added that France would place the reform of the international monetary system on the agenda when it chairs the Group of 8 and Group of 20 next year.

More than 2,500 leaders from over 90 countries and regions, representing business, government, civil society, academia and the media, are attending the five-day Davos meeting.