Geithner: Recovery efforts to dominate G8 talks

By David Lawder

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner said on Tuesday the main goal of this weekend's meeting of Group of 8 finance ministers is to "take stock" of efforts to stimulate economies and stabilize financial systems.

Geithner told a briefing that efforts to ensure an economic recovery takes hold are "still the dominant preoccupation of policy everywhere" despite signs that the economic crisis may be starting to ease.

Geithner will meet with his counterparts from the Group of Eight top industrial countries in Lecce, Italy, on Friday and Saturday. The ministers will to try to build consensus for financial reforms ahead of a G8 leaders' summit in Italy in July.

Geithner said he would discuss the U.S. experience with stress-testing the capital levels of banks, but did not plan to judge other countries' standards for examining their banks.

"Mostly what I'll do is explain what we've done here, and I'd expect they will do the same," he said.

"They're going to make different judgments than we are partly because they are going to have different systems, different constraints and different opportunities and what matters to all of us, are they going to achieve enough? That's the standard we should be held to and that's the standard that I think we'll hold them to,"

Geithner said he will underscore that the tests of the top 19 U.S. banks provided a level of disclosure and clarity that has improved confidence in the U.S. financial system and attracted private investment flows into bank shares.

Canadian Finance Minister Jim Flaherty said earlier that the G8 ministers would continue to apply pressure for stress testing at the weekend talks.