EU finance ministers expressed growing fears about the rising strength of the euro and a recent surge in oil prices at their regular monthly meeting in Brussels last night.

They also agreed to put pressure on China to do more to tackle "excessive volatility" in exchange rates when EU officials meet their Chinese counterparts this month.

"We will try to make clear to our Chinese friends and counterparts that they have a growing responsibility as far as international monetary policy is concerned," said Jean-Claude Junker, chairman of the eurogroup. "We don't like excessive volatility."

The euro's value against a range of currencies with which the 13-country euro zone trades, or its trade-weighted exchange rate, has risen 5 per cent this year alone.

The euro was worth $1.47 last night, hovering close to a record high.

The rapid rise in the euro is also alarming European businesses, which are finding it more difficult to sell their products in the US market. Ahead of yesterday's eurogroup meeting, the head of Europe's employers' federation BusinessEurope, Ernest-Antoine Seilliere, said the value of the euro was "beyond what we call the threshold of pain for European companies".

"The situation today is serious enough for everybody to really consider how something can be done," said Mr Seilliere, who held talks with Mr Junker and ECB chief Jean-Claude Trichet before the meeting.

Last week Mr Trichet said that the recent movements in global currency markets had been "sharp" and such brutal currency movements were "never welcome".

Mr Trichet is one of several EU officials that are expected to ratchet up the pressure on China to address what EU officials believe is the artificially-low level of the yuan against other currencies. The issue will be raised at an EU/China summit on November 27th.

However, some EU finance ministers noted that the strength of the euro to some extent helped to cushion the effect of high oil prices, which almost reached $100 last week. Austrian finance minister Wilhelm Molterer said the strength of the euro "makes life easier when we talk about oil prices". His Belgian counterpart Didier Reynders also noted that a strong euro helps to counteract high oil prices, but he called for the EU to step up talks with its key international partners on exchange rates.