WASHINGTON -- French Prime Minister Francois Fillon on Friday said he would urge U.S. officials to act to calm a "clearly overvalued" euro and foreign exchange volatility that was threatening European and global growth.

Fillon, speaking at a news conference ahead of meetings with Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke and U.S. Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson, said he would discuss with them the risks associated with "way too brutal" currency fluctuations.

"We believe that the euro, globally speaking, is overvalued. We have been saying it, the IMF has been saying the same thing," Fillon said through an interpreter, referring to the International Monetary Fund.

"The euro area, according to us, cannot bear the entire weight of the adjustment for all currencies"

"The U.S. authorities are repeating ad nauseum that the dollar is too weak and that the U.S. economy deserves a stronger dollar," Fillon said. "We need to find together a way to make sure that this happens in fact."

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Paulson has said that a strong dollar is in the United States' interests and that he believes solid longer-term prospects for the U.S. economy would ultimately be reflected in the dollar's value.

The French prime minister said he would repeat to Paulson and Bernanke his concerns over recent strong increases of the euro against the dollar, which are hurting European exports. He also said he would make it clear that increases in food and energy prices would detract from European growth.

"The strong increase in the value of the euro vis a vis the dollar and also vis a vis other currencies is a subject of concern for Europe," Fillon said. "The volatility between the currencies is a threat to Europe, for the U.S., for global economies, and this is the message I will repeat this afternoon."

DOLLAR GAINS ON JOBS DATA

The dollar climbed higher against the euro and the yen Friday after a government report showed the U.S. economy had shed 20,000 jobs in April, far less than the 80,000 that economists had forecast in a Reuters poll.

The data further increased the chances that the Federal Reserve will suspend its campaign of cutting interest rates, thus making the dollar more attractive, and backed a growing view that the U.S. economic slowdown may be milder than some economists had previously thought.

Fillon also noted that French economic fundamentals remained healthy, and said France was maintaining its latest growth projection of 1.7-2.0 percent for 2008. He said the first-quarter growth data looked like it would be better than expected, but the second quarter could be more difficult due to the effects of global financial turmoil and energy price shocks.

French Economy, Industry and Employment Minister Christine Lagarde told Reuters later that she would also urge Paulson to "remain vigilant" in resolving the credit crisis and in efforts to put financial markets back on a solid footing. She noted that French authorities have given French financial institutions 100 days to disclose losses associated with subprime mortgages and other risky assets and to come up with adequate reserves to cover them.

"I'm sure people are processing now. We'll see," she said.

Turning to the debate over Iran's nuclear program, Fillon said Tehran faces global isolation unless it engages with the West on its nuclear program, but said attacking Iran to prevent it from obtaining nuclear weapons was not an option that he wanted to consider.

"We have to do everything we could to avoid finding ourselves faced with the only solution of bombing Iran," he told a news conference through an interpreter. "The only option is to pressure the Iranian government through diplomatic means, economic means, and financial means."

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