U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner said on Tuesday that the prosperity of the American economy needs the rest of the world to recover.

"The rest of the world needs the U.S. economy and financial system to recover in order for it to revive," said Geithner in remarks to the Economic Club of Washington. "We remain at the center of global economic activity with financial and trade ties to every region of the globe."

"Just as importantly, we need the rest of the world to recover if we are to prosper again here at home," the Treasury chief said.

"Before the crisis, U.S. exports were among our economy's fastest-growing sectors, accounting for more than 6 million American jobs, or about 5 percent of total private sector employment in the U.S. Now, they are one of its fastest-shrinking," he stated.

He called for global cooperation to cope with the current crisis, which he said was "the most severe crisis in generations."

"As a consequence, the community of nations must work together -- and that work has already begun -- to revive economies around the world and to lay the groundwork for a new, more stable and more sustainable pattern of growth in the future," he said.

(Xinhua News Agency April 22, 2009)