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Finance ministers and central bankers from G-20 nations struggled to find common ground Friday as they began a two-day meeting near London on ways to ease the global recession.

The group is expected to back calls to double the International Monetary Fund's resources and expand the lender's powers to help emerging economies hit by a collapse in global demand and a sharp reduction in available credit.

But U.S. and European leaders continue to disagree whether more government spending or tighter regulation of the international financial markets is the best way to tackle the growing economic crisis.

U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner is expected to press for a coordinated stimulus and lower taxes to spur growth. But many European leaders say instituting global rules for banks, tax havens and hedge funds is more urgent.

World Bank President Robert Zoellick speaks to reporters in London, 13 Mar 09

As he arrived for Friday's meeting, Zoellick warned that continued fiscal stimulus without stabilizing the banking sector would result in nothing more than a "sugar high" for the world economy - temporary relief with no lasting benefits.

The problem of how to recapitalize the banks and clean up the "toxic" assets weighing down their balance sheets remains a key unsolved issue.

On Friday, a global association of financial firms, the Washington-based Institute of International Finance, described the uncertainty surrounding the size and value of those assets as "the fault line of the financial crisis."

The G-20 officials are using the meeting of leading industrialized and developing economies to set the stage for a summit of national leaders scheduled for April 2nd.