G20 eager to maintain stimulus, but no consensus on climate costs

ST. ANDREWS, Britain: It is still too early to remove stimulus funding, and climate change financing remains an obstacle to any hope of success for the Copenhagen conference, the Group of 20 finance ministers and bank governors said on Saturday.

During the two-day meeting, the G20 policymakers said that many uncertainties still stood in the way of economic recovery, and the global economy would fall back to recession again if these uncertainties were not brought under control.

US Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner said at a news conference: "If we put on the brakes too quickly we will weaken the economy and the financial system... and the ultimate cost of the crisis will be greater."