WASHINGTON(Dispatches) - Greek Prime Minister George Papandreou is urging the United States and Europe to help as it seeks to address its financial crisis and reform its economy.

Papandreou was in Washington to discuss the crisis with the Obama administration. He planned meetings Monday with Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton and Tuesday with President Barack Obama.
In a speech at the Brookings Institution in Washington, he also decried currency manipulations by speculators and called for stricter global control of currency markets. The Greek government blames speculators for exacerbating the financial crisis and for weakening the euro.
He encouraged U.S. authorities to continue investigations into possible currency manipulation involving the euro.
The International Monetary Fund says the lending institution is also planning informal meetings with Greek Finance Minister George Papaconstantinou, who is accompanying Papandreou.
Papandreou was not specific about what help he was seeking from Obama, but he emphasized that financial instability in Greece and Europe posed a threat to the United States. Papandreou has said his country is not looking for money from other governments, only help in securing loans at reasonable rates.
Papandreou's trip to Washington is part of a four-country trip seeking firmer EU and U.S. support for new measures to rein in Greece's massive budget gap.
Greece has committed to a severe austerity plan to reduce its 12.7 percent budget deficit and has warned that going to the International Monetary Fund is an option if a European solution is not found. Such action would be embarrassing to Europe because it would suggest the EU is unable to deal with its own problems.
Euro lower at $1.3622
The euro is lower against the dollar despite better prospects for Greece's budget issues.
The 16-nation euro bought $1.3622 in European morning trade Tuesday, down from $1.3633 late Monday in New York.
The British pound is lower at $1.4998 from $1.5072 but the dollar is down to 89.95 Japanese yen from 90.32.
European Monetary Fund
Robert Mundell, a Nobel laureate in economics for his work on exchange rates, said a new European Monetary Fund may not be the right institution to help the region deal with fiscal crises.
“I don’t know if I would immediately jump ahead to create a new institution,” he said in an interview on Bloomberg Television on Tuesday. “I think you need to find a more informal way of solving this problem. This isn’t a euro problem, it’s a Greek financial problem.”
EU leaders are in talks to establish a lender of last resort that could come to a member’s aid the way the International Monetary Fund helps governments struggling to finance their deficits. They’re also considering limits on credit-default swaps to bolster the euro. Plans for what may become the European Monetary Fund are to be ready by June, officials in Berlin and Brussels said yesterday.
Concern that Greece may need a bailout has weakened the euro, while the premium investors demand to buy the country’s debt over comparable German bonds has more than doubled in the last six months. The spread of Greek over German government debt reached 305 basis points on Tuesday, compared with 132 basis points on Sept. 9.
Photo : Secretary of State Hillary Clinton (R) and Greek Prime Minister George Papandreou speak to the media after a meeting at the State Department on March 8, 2010 in Washington. (Getty Images)