Nicolas Sarkozy used the first speech by a French leader to the US Congress for more than a decade to attack the "excesses" of Wall Street yesterday, criticising the land of free enterprise for being too tolerant of financial speculation.

The French president, who arrived in Washington promising to "reconquer the heart of America" after the divisions of the Iraq war, said pro-Americans should be the first to criticise "the vagaries and excesses of a financial capitalism that currently leaves too much room for financial speculation".