US treasury secretary calls for more bold steps of Greece to exit crisis

U.S. Treasury Secretary Jack Lew praised Greek efforts to overcome the debt crisis and called for further reforms and bold steps to achieve the goal during a short visit to Athens on Sunday. "We acknowledge the difficult decisions Greece has taken over the past years... You have worked hard," he said after a meeting with Greek Prime Minister Antonis Samaras under the Acropolis hill. The American official stressed that the way to recovery seems still long and Greece needs to keep up growth boosting reforms, noting that when the United States faced the crisis, Washington made similar bold decisions. On the agenda of talks were sustainable development and the creation of job positions in the recession-hit economy, Samaras and Lew said. Lew visited Athens a day after the G20 finance ministers meeting in Moscow and ahead of Samaras' official visit to the White House on Aug. 8 for a meeting with U.S. President Barack Obama.