Washington ? Financial leaders, with a nervous eye on Greece, pledged Saturday to address the risks posed to the global recovery from high government debt.

But they also stressed that high unemployment in many countries remained a threat to a sustainable recovery from the deepest global downturn since the end of World War II.

The Greek debt crisis has dominated the weekend discussions among finance officials from the world’s major economies.

The policy-setting panel of the 186-nation International Monetary Fund on Saturday cited signs that the recovery from the global downturn is gaining strength, but also noted difficult challenges lie ahead in such areas as growing government debt burdens and lingering high unemployment.

“The worst is definitely behind us, but we are not out of the woods yet,” said Egyptian Finance Minister Youssef Boutros-Ghali, chairman of the IMF panel.

Greece’s finance minister, George Papaconstantinou, flew to Washington for two days of talks with top officials of the IMF, the European Union and the Obama administration. 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,” according to a Treasury statement.

Geithner participated in a meeting at IMF headquarters Saturday, which included Papaconstantinou, IMF Managing Director Domininque Strauss-Kahn and Olli Rehn, the European Commission’s top economic official.

Greece is hoping to obtain loans of about $40 billion from the group of 16 European countries which, like Greece, use the euro as a common currency, and an additional $13.4 billion from the IMF. Greece on Friday made a formal request for the aid.

Canadian Finance Minister Jim Flaherty said Saturday that while he didn’t have a view on the proper size of a rescue program for Greece, finance officials from some other nations have expressed concerns that the current level may not be sufficient.

European and IMF officials have made clear that their support will carry a high price: putting Greece’s fiscal house in order. Greece has agreed to put in place an austerity program that cuts civil servants’ pay, freezes pensions and raises taxes. But the country faces years of painful cutbacks and doubts about long-term finances.