BRUSSELS, Oct 15 (Reuters) - President Nicolas Sarkozy called at a European Union summit on Wednesday for a clamp-down on hedge funds and offshore centres as part of efforts to better regulate the world financial system.

"I would propose a simple principle, that no financial institution should escape regulation and supervision," he said according to a copy of a speech to the EU summit in Brussels.

"I am thinking, for example, of the regulation that we must apply to the rating agencies, and of the necessary supervision of hedge funds...We must also work to eliminate the grey areas that undermine our efforts at coordination, in this case the offshore centres," he said. (Reporting by Francois Murphy; writing by Mark John)