Geithner doesn't see Fed funding IMF euro response

U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner said in Germany on Tuesday that the European Central Bank was playing a positive role in the euro zone debt crisis, but he played down talk that the U.S. Federal Reserve could boost IMF funding for the crisis.

The reports I've read in the press about what the Fed can do are not accurate, he told a news conference with German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble, who said Europe can expect further support from the United States and the International Monetary Fund.

One German paper reported this week that the Fed and the central banks of the 17 euro-zone states could pay into a fund to help the IMF contribute to bailouts for debt-ridden euro states.

Geithner said the crisis response must include more fiscal union to make monetary union more viable in the long run, and the financial support by European governments and central banks in the form of a stronger firewall to allow the financial system of Europe to provide the oxygen necessary for economic growth.

(Reporting by Annika Breidthardt and David Lawder; Writing by Stephen Brown)