PARIS, Feb 12: Italy's Finance Minister called on his European partners on Monday to focus less on the euro's exchange rate and concentrate instead on improving the competitiveness of their economies.

"Whether one likes it or not, international markets decide the level of a currency," Tommaso Padoa-Schioppa told a conference on Europe held in Paris.

"A strong currency has enormous advantages. A strong currency forces you to look to increase efficiency and this is beneficial," he said.

Several leading French polticians, including the two presidential candidates Segolene Royal and Nicolas Sarkozy, have recently criticised the role of the European Central Bank against a background of a rise of the euro against the dollar which tends to make exports from the eurozone expensive on foreign maekets.

Padoa-Schioppa, however, said Europe should not worry about the strength of the euro but instead look to win market share through investment and quality of its products.—AFP