Singapore - United States Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner on Thursday said that the US needed a strong dollar for its recovery from the global recession, as it was a source of stability for the world economy.

"It is very important for the United States that we have a strong dollar, ... that we sustain confidence in not just the stability of our financial system but in our capacity as a country, as growth recovers, to move our fiscal position back in the balance," Geithner said.

That would be "very important" for recovery in the US, he said after a meeting with finance ministers from the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) in Singapore.

"We bear a special responsibility for being a source of stability and strength for the global economy," he said.

Geithner urged other economies to shift away from their dependence on US demand, saying that now "Americans are saving more."

"The rest of the world has to shift to more domestic sources of growth," he said.

"We see Asia leading the world back to recovery," said Geithner, adding that the US would be a strong partner for countries in the region "in working together to try to confront the major economic challenges of our time."

Geithner said that the US would maintain its economic stimulus measures for now as more than half of the support was still ahead.

"Most programmes were designed as two-year-programmes," he said.

Geithner had earlier met with finance ministers from the 21 APEC economies as part of the one-week annual summit of the forum.

The summit is set to culminate when the heads of its member economies meet over the weekend.

APEC consists of 21 Pacific Rim economies: Australia, Brunei, Canada, Chile, China, Indonesia, Hong Kong, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Papua New Guinea, the Philippines, Singapore, South Korea, Taiwan, Thailand, Peru, Russia, the US and Vietnam (dpa)