Geithner demands greater European efforts to fight economic crisis

US Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner demanded Saturday that the eurozone make greater efforts to fight the global economic crisis, in an address to the International Monetary Fund (IMF) in Washington, dpa reported. He said that "impressive" measures had been taken during the past 18 months, but added that more was necessary to "create a firewall against further contagion." He demanded that European governments work together with the European Central Bank (ECB) to demonstrate with "unequivocal commitment" that states with sound fiscal policies had access to affordable financing, and to ensure that banks had recourse to adequate capital, "to win the full confidence of their depositors and creditors." "The threat of cascading default, bank runs and catastrophic risk must be taken off the table, as otherwise it will undermine all other efforts, both within Europe and globally," Geithner told the IMF steering committee.