Paris - A top advisor to French President Nicolas Sarkozy said Thursday that the financial crisis has "temporarily" rendered the Maastricht criteria on public deficits not a top priority.

"Temporarily, (the criteria) are not the priorities of priorities. The priority is to save the world banking system and therefore save citizens' savings," Henry Guaino told Canal Plus television.

The criteria, set out in the Treaty of Maastricht, include a national budget deficit totalling less than 3 per cent of GDP and public debt not exceeding 60 per cent of GDP.

"These are rules for ordinary times, not rules for crises," Guaino said. "Today, the question is to know if, yes or no, we let things go, the system collapse, or if we stop the system from collapsing."

Guaino is considered Sarkozy's closest advisor and the man behind many of his policies and ideas.

He made his statements as a controversy was brewing about the alleged plans by the French government to propose a massive bail-out of Europe's finance sector similar to the Paulson plan put forward in the United States.

Several media reported on Wednesday that the French government would propose a bail-out plan worth 300 billion euros (417 billion euros) at Saturday's emergency meeting in Paris of the four European G7 countries, France, Britain, Italy and Germany.

On Wednesday, a spokesman of the German Finance Ministry, rejected such an idea, saying, "The German government thinks nothing of such a plan."

The French Finance Ministry then issued a statement denying ever having considered such an idea. (dpa)