Berlin and Moscow agree that a stable euro is key for global financial stability and sustainable economic growth, German Chancellor Angela Merkel and Russian President Dmitry Medvedev said on Saturday.

I explained to him how the European Union feels committed to a stable euro, and therefore agreed on the rescue package, Merkel said at a joint news conference with Medvedev.

Global policymakers were forced to take unprecedented action last month, erecting a 750 billion euro safety net to prevent a Greek debt crisis from spiraling across the euro zone.

Medvedev said he was confident the EU would be able to cope with its problems and hoped the euro zone would remain stable.

It is important for the euro zone itself, for partners such as the Russian Federation and ... for the global financial system, he said.

If today, you remove this pillar from the global financial system, I'm afraid the consequences will be worse than when the crisis started in 2008.

Russia wanted a stable and predictable rate of both the dollar and the euro, Medvedev added.

Merkel said Russia and Germany broadly agreed on questions of financial market regulation, which would be addressed at a meeting of the Group of 20 industrial and emerging economies later this month.

The G20 meeting will above all address the question of sustainable growth, as well as the topic of financial market regulation -- upon which there is great agreement between Russia and Germany, Merkel said.

Growth should not be achieved at the cost of high deficits, Merkel said, but should be sustainable.

In Germany, the question of reasonable deficits which are not too high plays a key role, she said. We believe that growth should not be achieved at the cost of high deficits, but we should achieve growth in a sustainable way.

(Reporting by Denis Dyomkin, Additional Reporting by Dmitry Zhdannikov, Writing by Sarah Marsh; editing by John Stonestreet)

Germany Dmitry Medvedev Russia