Greece should speed up financial reforms, and the International Monetary Fund should render financial aid to the debt-plagued country, the U.S. Treasury Secretary has said.

Timothy Geithner met on Saturday with his Greek counterpart, George Papaconstantinou, IMF Managing Director Dominique Strauss-Kahn and European officials a day after Greece asked for a massive bailout to stay afloat.

"Secretary Geithner encouraged them to move quickly to put in place a package of strong reforms and substantial concrete financial support," the U.S. Department of Treasury said in a statement.

During the talks Geithner also said that anti-crisis measures should be taken as soon as possible to prevent the Greek crisis from spreading to other European countries.

Greece on Friday requested EU for a loan of up to $40 billion and the IMF of some $13 billion to pay its looming debts.

But Germany, the Euro zone's biggest member, has so far been reluctant to issuing the loan without substantial budget cuts.

WASHINGTON, April 25 (RIA Novosti)