Greek Finance Minister George Papaconstantinou continued intense talks with IMF and European Union officials on a multibillion dollar rescue package to meet his country's massive debt obligations. Parallel negotiations are under way in Athens.

Papaconstantinou is scheduled to meet Sunday with Dominique Strauss-Khan, the head of the International Monetary Fund.

“The Greek citizens shouldn't fear the IMF, we are there to try to help them,” said Strauss-Kahn, a former Socialist finance minister of France.

Greece is hoping to obtain loans of about $40 billion from the group of 16 Eurozone countries and an additional $13.4 billion from the IMF.

Greece on Friday made a formal request for the aid and Prime Minister George Papandreou declared in a televised address that his country's economy was a “sinking ship.” US Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner urged the Greek government, European officials and the IMF to “move quickly to put in place a package of strong reforms and substantial concrete financial support.” European and IMF officials, however, have made clear that their support will require Greece to put its fiscal house in order.

Greece has already agreed to begin an austerity program that cuts civil servants' pay, freezes pensions and raises taxes. But the country faces years of painful cutbacks and the austerity program has already generated massive street protests in Greece and labor strikes.

Canadian Finance Minister Jim Flaherty said Saturday that finance officials from some European expressed concerns that the size of a rescue program for Greece may not be sufficient.

“There is a concern about making sure that the package is enough so that it's a one-time event,” he told reporters.

Budget deficits in the United States, Britain, France and other advanced countries also remain a threat to the global economic recovery and the ministers said in their communique they were “strongly committed to ensuring sustainable public finances and addressing sovereign debt risks.” Strauss-Kahn said the IMF was helping countries use their stimulus packages in ways that generate job growth and lower labor market costs to combat lingering unemployment, still rising in many advanced countries.

Unemployment was cited by ministers and central bankers as another threat to the recovery from the deepest recession since the end of World War II.

“The worst is definitely behind us, but we are not out of the woods yet,” said Youssef Boutros-Ghali, Egypt's finance minister and the chairman of the IMF steering committee.

Security remained tight around the IMF and World Bank headquarters, but protests were low-key, unlike past years when demonstrators clashed with police.

Strauss-Kahn said the IMF is a changed institution from the agency that generated such anger for its austerity programs in previous crises in the 1990s.

IMF officials have said the current programs are crafted with an eye to protecting the most vulnerable in a country while trying to be more representative of the views of the developing world, not just rich nations that contribute the largest shares of support.

The IMF policy discussions came one day after Friday's meeting of the Group of 20 major economies which includes the traditional Group of Seven economic powers - the United States, Japan, Germany, Britain, France, Italy and Canada - and emerging nations including China, Brazil, India and South Korea.

One result of the global recession is that the G-20 has taken over as the key agenda-setting group for the global economy, a role before played by the G-7.

Most of the countries on the G-20 also have seats on the IMF's policy board.

This weekend's discussions were designed to prepare the agenda for a June meeting G-20 leaders in Canada.

Finance officials were unable to agree on an IMF recommendation for the creation of two types of new taxes on banks to make sure that taxpayers are not saddled with the costs of resolving future financial crises.

Strauss-Kahn sought to play down the differences, saying the G-20 should still be able to meet a series of deadlines for presenting recommendations to the G-20 leaders in June to developing new global capital standards by the end of this year.

The talks end Sunday with a meeting of the steering committee for the World Bank, the IMF's sister lending organization, the biggest provider of development loans.