The head of the International Monetary Fund, Dominique Strauss-Kahn, has said the US and western Europe must act to clear up their banking systems before global economic recovery can begin.
Mr Strauss-Kahn said experience of banking crises showed the more that difficult decisions were postponed, the more recovery was delayed.
Speaking in Washington ahead of a meeting of G20 finance ministers, he accepted there had been progress but said it was not enough.
Aid campaigner Bob Geldof, who is also in Washington, described the international financial crisis as a great leveller.
He said only a fraction of the money being used to bail out banks across the world would lift Africa out of poverty.
