French Hollande to put growth ideas in letter to EU heads

PARIS (Reuters) - French presidential frontrunner Francois Hollande said on Wednesday that if elected next month he would set out his ideas for improving economic growth in Europe in a letter to European Union leaders the next day.

Hollande, who wants to renegotiate an EU budget responsibility pact to tack on pro-growth clauses if he beats conservative incumbent Nicolas Sarkozy in a May 6 election runoff as polls predict, said his letter would include four points.

"First the creation of eurobonds, not to mutualism debt but to finance investment and industry projects. The second point will be to free up more investment financing by the European Investment Bank," Hollande told a news conference.

He said the third point would be to create a financial transaction tax to help finance development projects, and the fourth would be to deploy structural funds for different projects.

"The main risk at the moment is that the European economy stays in a strong recession because of not being able to free up credit for businesses," he said.

(Reporting by Daniel Flynn; Editing by Catherine Bremer)