LONDON, Dec. 3 (UPI) -- Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan warned his G7 counterparts the world could be in for a "painful" adjustment to economic imbalances.
Greenspan cited the U.S. trade deficit and slow growth in Europe, the BBC reported.
The meeting of finance ministers and central bank chairmen in London is meant to prepare the ground for the mid-December World Trade Organization talks in Hong Kong.
"If the pernicious drift towards fiscal instability in the United States and elsewhere is not arrested, and is compounded by a protectionist reversal of globalization, the adjustment process could be quite painful for the world economy," Greenspan said.
Other items up for discussion are farm subsidies and price supports and revaluation of the Chinese currency.
British Foreign Minister Gordon Brown, the host of the meeting, called on the developed countries to give up farm price supports.
