But don't pull back on support, Geithner warns

By MARTIN CRUTSINGER

Associated Press

WASHINGTON -- Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner said Wednesday that efforts by the United States and other nations to fight a worldwide economic crisis have been able to pull the global economy "back from the abyss."

But countries must continue to provide sizable amounts of support until there are clearer signs of recovery to avoid a classic mistake countries have made in past recessions, he said.

Geithner said he would stress that point in meetings of financial ministers in London that start Friday. Those discussions will allow officials to assess the state of the global economy for growth and decide what steps are needed to prevent a recurrence of last year's crisis.

"We have come a long way, but we have got a long way to go," Geithner said at a briefing for reporters to preview the meetings of finance ministers from the Group of 20 nations. "We need to make sure we are confident we have a strong recovery in place."

A proposed global framework to bolster requirements for the amount of capital reserves that banks need to guard against losses also will be among Geithner's talking points.

The administration is hoping to get broad agreement on raising capital standards so that U.S. financial institutions would not be put at a disadvantage if capital standards here are raised to higher levels than their competitors face in other nations.