Top finance officials from the European Union and the United States held bilateral talks Saturday before a Group of 20 (G20) emerging and industrialized economies meeting that was due to be dominated by concerns over the eurozone crisis, dpa reported.
EU Economy Commissioner Olli Rehn met US Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner before G20 finance ministers and central bankers gathered for their second and last day of talks in Paris, an EU official told dpa.
Geithner was "supportive" of the eurozone crisis resolution strategy that the European Commission presented Wednesday, the source said.
The five-point plan - closely resembling ideas presented earlier by German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Nicolas Sarkozy - hinges on bank recapitalizations, further debt relief for Greece, bolstering euro bailout facilities and strengthening eurozone discipline rules.
An EU summit is expected to endorse the strategy on October 23 - hopefully enabling the bloc to reassure partners that it has got on top of the crisis at a G20 leaders' meeting in Cannes, France, on November 3-4.
The International Monetary Fund has urged EU leaders to get a grip on the debt woes afflicting their common currency area to prevent a global knock-on effect that could fuel a double-dip recession.
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