Finance Ministers from the Group of Seven industrial nations issued a public statement saying growth is picking up around the world, then individually expressed concern about the direction of major G7 economies.
After a two-day meeting on Canada's East coast, the ministers -- from the US, UK, Japan, Germany, France, Italy, and Canada -- described themselves as "confident" about their economies' prospects.
"Growth in our economies has strengthened and should continue to consolidate throughout the year," the statement said.
Yet in separate news conferences, some of the finance ministers flagged risks when questioned about their overall confidence in the global economy.
US Treasury Secretary Paul O'Neill said that while bilateral meetings with colleagues left him "encouraged" about global prospects, Japan, which isn't expected to grow at all this year, is still a worry.
"They need to be at 3 percent-plus" growth, he said. "So I'd love it if they would figure out a way to get back on a track that gives them their potential real growth much quicker than they're anticipating."
German Finance Minister Hans Eichel also expressed concern about Japan, saying it's "the country that we worry most about."
Questions were posed about the confidence of US investors, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average down more than five percent on the year and economic growth projected to slow from the 5.6 percent annual pace of the first quarter.
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