Ministers from the world's leading energy consuming nations on Tuesday called for measures to curb their dependence on unreliable and expensive energy imports. The United States, Europe, China and Japan were among those represented at a meeting of the International Energy Agency, the energy arm of the OECD, which meets every two years at ministerial level to protect the interests of oil consumers. "Energy security is a challenge not only for the United States, but for all nations as demand continues to grow around the world," U.S. Energy Secretary Sam Bodman said in a statement. "Energy markets as exemplified by current oil prices are really a global problem that was many years in the making and undoubtedly many years in solving," he told reporters. Economists increasingly blame high energy costs for what seems to be an unexpected slowdown in the European economy. The U.S. economy has also lost steam and grew at its slowest pace in two years in the first quarter.