PARIS - French President Nicolas Sarkozy called on Monday for an open G20 discussion of monetary reform and regulation of commodity markets, saying food price rises risked causing riots.

Sarkozy, who was spelling out France's goals this year as holder of the rotating presidency of the Group of 20 economic powers, said agricultural commodity prices had recently topped the peaks that sparked riots in 2008.

France's President Nicolas Sarkozy speaks during a G20 and G8 news conference at the Elysee Palace in Paris, January 24, 2011.[Photo/Agencies]

"If we don't do anything we run the risk of food riots in the poorest countries and a very unfavourable effect on global economic growth," he said in an address at the Elysee Palace in Paris.

"The day there are food riots, what country at the G20 table will say this does not concern them? I don't see a single one."

He also called again for an international financial transaction tax to help meet goals of finding $100 billion a year to fund development at a time when many countries who made those promises are deep in debt.