L’AQUILA - French President Nicolas Sarkozy is pushing for an expansion of the Group of Eight (G8).

“The G8 are no longer representative enough to manage the economic crisis,” Sarkozy said Thursday in L’Aquila, Italy, after the close of the second day of the summit of the world’s seven leading industrialised democracies plus Russia.

Major emerging economies including China and India must be brought in for permanent membership, Sarkozy said. France, which takes over the rotating G8 leadership in 2011, intends to create a G14 group, he said.

“It’s unavoidable,” he said. “We must include these countries in discussions from the very beginning. There’s no way around it.”

Sarkozy expressed support for similar efforts to expand the UN’ most important decision-making body, the Security Council. He wants the permanent members to include Germany, Japan and India.

The suggestions are not new. The current permanent members, who have the power of veto over any Security Council resolution, are the World War II victors: China, Russia, the US, France and Britain. Other large contributors to the UN including Japan and European countries are pushing for equal clout.

Sarkozy questioned the continuing dominant role of the US dollar as the global currency.

“The world cannot continue to use just one currency” as its common denominator, he said.

Most of international commerce is calculated in US dollars, and the dollar dominates international financial markets.