US Treasury Secretary Mr Robert Rubin warned yesterday that global growth imbalances posed "a very serious" problem to the world economy.

Mr Rubin told a press conference in Washington that the need for Europe and Japan to spur domestic economic momentum - and thereby relieve pressure on the United States - would figure prominently at a meeting in Frankfurt tomorrow of finance officials from the Group of Seven industrialised countries. "It is critically important that Europe and Japan do their part because the international system cannot sustain indefinitely the large imbalances created by disparities in growth and openness between the United States and its major trading partners," he said.