Geithner will meet Tuesday in Germany with Mario Draghi, the new head of the European Central Bank, and officials of the German government, including German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schauble and Jens Weidemann, the head of Germany’s central bank.

He will meet Wednesday in Paris with French President Nicolas Sarkozy. He then travels to Marseille, France, for a meeting with Mariano Rajoy Brey, the prime minister-elect of Spain.

On Thursday, Geithner will meet in Milan, Italy, with new Italian Premier Mario Monti before returning to Washington later that day.

The Obama administration has been urging European officials to take more forceful action to confront the continent’s debt crisis, which threatens the global economy.

Geithner’s trip is coming at what could be a pivotal week for dealing with the crisis. German Chancellor Angela Merkel said Friday that she will urge leaders at a European Union Summit meeting on Wednesday to consider tougher rules to control government overspending.

Merkel’s comments came a day after Sarkozy had come out in support of a similar effort to adopt ways to enforce rules to get control of the debt problems in heavily indebted countries in Europe.