Britain denies G20 planning rift with United States

[bijou]

LONDON (Reuters) – Britain moved on Wednesday to prevent a diplomatic row with the United States over April's G20 summit after its top civil servant said the transition to a new team in Washington was hampering preparations.

Britain's Cabinet Secretary Gus O'Donnell told a meeting of civil servants that liaison with the U.S. Treasury Department was tricky because key appointments were still to be made.

"There is nobody there. You cannot believe how difficult it is," O'Donnell said on Tuesday in remarks carried on a civil service website.

The U.S. Treasury has several key posts unfilled more than a month after President Barack Obama was sworn in and pledged that his economic team, led by Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner, would fight the crisis full-on.

Britain is preparing to host the G20 summit of leaders of developed and emerging nations in London on April 2. The meeting of world leaders is seen as vital in securing agreement on measures to help combat the financial crisis. ...

Geithner will attend a meeting of Group of 20 finance ministers and central bankers in southern England on Friday and Saturday.

Tensions have surfaced after Geithner urged other countries to emulate Washington's huge fiscal stimulus, a call that brought a cool response from European nations.

The rest of the world will be under a bus soon. 

With Geithner out of the country, that appears to leave no one behind who has any responsibility for the economy.

[thundley4]

"There is nobody there. You cannot believe how difficult it is," O'Donnell said on Tuesday in remarks carried on a civil service website.

The lights are on, but nobody is home?  That sums up the 0Bama administrations pretty well. 

[DumbAss Tanker]

Sounds like a battered wife lying to cover for her abusive husband to me.