The annual Brussels Economic Forum conference has been looking at ways to meet the economic challenges facing the EU.

The conference participants have all agreed that the single European currency is a good thing as it was preventing the present dollar weakness placing enormous strains on the euro area economies.

At the conference, the head of the International Monetary Fund, Dominique Strauss-Kahn, said the biggest challenge now is for the 15 countries using the euro to adopt common external economic policies.

As they met, the EU statistics office announced euro zone economic growth rebounded more strongly than expected in the first quarter. On an annualised basis, gross domestic product rose 2.2%. GDP was up 0.7% from the previous quarter, with strong performances by Germany and France.