POTSDAM Germany AP Germany and France agreed Tuesday that fighting unemployment should be Europe's top priority throwing their weight behind a shift toward a left-leaning agenda among European governments. French and German leaders also called for tighter international scrutiny of the financial world including highly speculative ``hedge funds'' seen as a way to counter damaging swings in the markets. In a joint declaration at the end of a two-day German-French summit in Potsdam outside of Berlin the leaders said a jobs creation pact is needed to offset years of government austerity measures to get Europe ready for the single currency the euro being launched Jan. 1. ``We want to make a great common effort to move the theme of employment to the center of European politics'' German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder told a news conference with French President Jacques Chirac and Prime Minister Lionel Jospin. Member governments of the European Union should set ``binding verifiable'' goals for putting their citizens back to work the leaders said in a declaration. Unemployment in the 11 countries launching the euro is a stubborn 10.9 percent and putting people back to work has been a central political theme among European leaders. The declaration emphasized the importance of the French-German relationship but there was discord too. Both sides set officials to work to assess the possible effects of the new German government's pledge to wean the country off nuclear power. France has no such plans and does lucrative business reprocessing nuclear fuel from German power plants. Chirac also refused comment on a recent call by German Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer for NATO to abandon its doctrine allowing it to launch a nuclear attack with out being targeted first. The proposal has irritated the United States. Both sides agreed to push plans to merge European aerospace industries to take on U.S. giants Boeing and Lockheed Martin though they didn't resolve the issue of French participation. Schroeder told Chirac during the summit that he supports bringing together the British and German industries first if France doesn't join in from the start. He stressed though that the door would be left open to the French. The big European aircraft makers Daimler-Benz Aerospace British Aerospace and Aerospatiale agreed in principle in March to seek a merger. Daimler-Benz Aerospace and British Aerospace are in advanced talks on a two-way alliance because of obstacles to Aerospatiale's early participation including slow progress toward privatization. With the euro binding 11 European economies closer together than ever before the leaders also pledged to seek common European policies on taxes and workers' rights. Germany and France hold summits twice yearly but this meeting has special significance because of the euro's debut and Germany's six-month EU presidency starting Jan. 1. Schroeder sought French support for German demands to lower its contribution to the EU budget gaining Chirac's acknowledgement that ``there is a problem.'' Germany which contributes one-third of the EU budget annually pays 22 billion marks dlrs 12 billion more than it receives in funds. UR; tc-cb APW19981201.1002.txt.body.html APW19981201.0839.txt.body.html