The head of the US central bank, Ben Bernanke, says the global recession is nearing an end but warned the road to recovery would be a long one.
"After contracting sharply over the past year, economic activity appears to be levelling out, both in the United States and abroad, and the prospects for a return to growth in the near term appear good," the Federal Reserve chairman said.
But he said unemployment, which is expected to top 10% in the US, would fall "only gradually", the BBC reports.
European Central Bank president Jean-Claude Trichet expressed concern at what he saw as premature talk of a full recovery.
"I am a little bit uneasy when I see that, because we have some green shoots here and there, we are already saying, 'well, after all, we are close to back to normal'," Mr Trichet was quoted by the BBC as saying.
