G-20 to focus on Europe: U.S. official (by Greg Robb)

WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) - The European debt crisis remains the "greatest headwind" to global growth and therefore will be a focus of the G-20 meeting of finance ministers and central bankers in Mexico City this weekend, a senior U.S. Treasury official said Friday. "There will be considerable interest among the G-20 on the European crisis response," the official said. Officials of other G-20 nations have said they would press the U.S. to avoid the fiscal cliff, the automatic spending cuts and tax hikes set to hit the economy early next year. The U.S. officials sidestepped the issue, saying only that there is "broad support" for deficit reduction over the medium term while helping the economy now. China, and other emerging Asian countries, need to do more to strengthen domestic demand, the official said. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner and some other top officials from the G-20 are skipping the meeting, which comes right before the U.S. presidential election.