MADRID, Sept 18, 2008 (AFP) - EU Economic and Monetary Affairs Commissioner Joaquin Almunia said Thursday he opposed the use of 'financial socialism' to bail out private companies suffering financial meltdowns, unless they presented risks to the global economy.

'Socialists like me, we are against financial socialism,' he said in reference to state operations to rescue companies in financial turmoil.

He was speaking in the wake of massive interventions by the Bush administration to shore up faltering US financial institutions, reeling from the sub-prime mortgage meltdown, with loans and other means of support.

Almunia nonetheless told a conference in Madrid that he backed aid to firms whose difficulties presented a systemic risk to the global economy.

Almunia was secretary general of Spain's Socialist Party from 1997 to 2000.