WASHINGTON (AP) — The U.S. Treasury Department says finance ministers and central bank presidents of the world’s seven wealthiest countries have held an emergency conference call Tuesday to review the policy options European leaders are considering to forge a stronger financial and fiscal union in Europe.
The statement said that the finance officials agreed to keep monitoring developments closely in the runup to a leaders’ summit of the Group of 20 major economies on June 18-19 in Los Cabos, Mexico. The European debt crisis is expected to be the major agenda item at that meeting.
On Monday, the administration said that the United States expects to see more action to strengthen the European banking system over the next two weeks. The G-7 countries are the United States, Japan, Germany, France, Britain, Canada and Italy.
The United States is represented at G-7 finance discussions by Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner and Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke.
Bernanke is scheduled to testify on economic developments on Thursday before the congressional Joint Economic Committee. He is expected to face extensive questions about how Europe is impacting U.S. growth and what the Federal Reserve might do to offset the economic drag being created from Europe’s problems.
The Labor Department reported last week that the nation created just 69,000 jobs in May, the fewest in a year, and just half what economists had been expecting.
