South Korea - Leading policymakers expressed concern on Friday about the health of the world economy even as they closed ranks behind the euro zone's efforts to tackle a debt crisis that has rattled global markets. Speaking before two days of talks bringing together the world's top 20 developed and emerging economies, South African Planning Minister Trevor Manuel said he could not think of a more challenging time than the present for the Group of 20. The meeting of G20 finance ministers and central bank governors was an opportunity to take decisions to banish the spectre of a double-dip recession, Manuel said. "It's important that we all understand just how fragile the recovery is," he told reporters in this southern port city. Police boats patrolled near the beach hotel where the meetings are taking place. Authorities have steeped up security in the city in the face of the some of the most war-like rhetoric on the divided peninsula after the South accused North Korea of sinking one of its warships. As well as a 110 billion euro bailout for Greece, the 16-member euro zone is slinging a financial safety net under other heavily indebted countries that use the single currency. Together with money from the International Monetary Fund, the support could total 750 billion euros ($910 billion). Investors first responded enthusiastically to the rescue package, but the euro has since slumped on concern that about the ability not only of Greece, but also countries such as Portugal and Spain, to plug holes in their budgets. "First, I don't think the Greece problem is over yet. We are not out of the woods," Youssef Boutros-Ghali, Egypt's finance minister, told Reuters. "Second, I don't think they got off lightly. The measures they have been required to implement are fairly tough. And there are in some areas doubts whether they are able to continue implementing such tough measures," Boutros-Ghali, who also heads the IMF's policy-steering committee, said.
