MADRID, April 28 (Reuters) - Spain wants to strengthen the economic powers of the European Union when it takes over the rolling presidency of the 27-member club next January, Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero said on Tuesday.
At a joint news conference with French President Nicolas Sarkozy, Zapatero said boosting the EU's powers to tackle economic crises would be a priority during Spain's six months at the helm.
"I agreed with President Sarkozy that if the European Union really wants to be a political union, which works for its citizens, it has to have a much more solid economic government and with tools," Zapatero told journalists in Madrid.
"I can't see a single market, a single currency, then not see an economic government with powers, with tools," he added.
A statement from the prime minister's office said Spain would seek to coordinate stimulus measures and said it was necessary to actively put in place mechanisms to avoid future crises by improving regulation and supervision of financial markets.
Zapatero's spokesman said later that the prime minister was seeking a much more rapid and less bureaucratic system, but he offered no details as to what tools Zapatero sought for the EU.
Zapatero also underlined his support for strong public spending to escape the economic crisis. He fired Pedro Solbes as economy minister earlier this month after they increasingly disagreed on what margin Spain had to spend more to help the economy and reduce unemployment that has now topped 4 million.
"When the financial system is at the edge of collapse, who is it that has to save the financial system? It is the governments with public funds," he said on the second day of Sarkozy's first state visit to Spain. (Reporting by Ben Harding; editing by Stephen Nisbet)