Robert Zoellick

WASHINGTON — Finance officials from the world's major countries believe the global economy is in far better shape than it was a year ago, but they are worried a growing debt crisis in Greece could cause the hard-won gains to unravel.

Some also are concerned about the failure so far to achieve consensus on the steps needed to toughen regulations to make sure the financial crisis that triggered the worst recession since the 1930s is not repeated.

Finance ministers and the heads of central banks from the Group of 20 major economies were to participate in daylong talks today at the International Monetary Fund. The G-20 is composed of the world's richest industrial countries and fast-growing developing nations such as China, Brazil, South Korea and Russia.

The United States was being represented by Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner and Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke. The talks today were being held in advance of weekend meetings of key policymaking boards of the 186-nation IMF and its sister lending institution, the World Bank.

The administration is hoping the G-20 will endorse a set of financial reforms that will complement the sweeping overhaul President Barack Obama is seeking to get approved in Congress. The U.S. measure was scheduled for an initial showdown vote in the Senate on Monday.

The administration believes the United States, the world's largest economy, must show resolve in fixing the flaws exposed by the financial crisis or the momentum for global reform could falter. However, the G-20 nations were finding it tough to reach a consensus in a number of key areas, including a call by the IMF to boost taxes on financial institutions to pay for future bailouts.

Canadian Finance Minister Jim Flaherty said Thursday, "I'm not going to impose a tax on our banks that performed well during the crisis."

In addition to overhauling rules governing banks' capital and liquidity standards and the regulation of exotic financial instruments such as derivatives, the finance officials were also scheduled to discuss efforts to assemble an IMF support package to rescue debt-burdened Greece.

Greek Finance Minister George Papaconstantinou was scheduled to meet with IMF Managing Director Dominique Strauss-Kahn on Saturday. Greece is seeking support from European governments and the IMF for a standby rescue package that it hopes it will not need.

But with investors demanding punishingly high interest rates, the chances Greece will get by without an IMF-supported rescue seemed increasingly remote.