US Treasury Secretary John Snow said the EU and Japan are not doing enough to boost world economic growth. "Europe and Japan have a critical role to play in maintaining global economic strength, but they have not been playing their part of late," Snow said in a speech prepared for delivery to Brussels thinktank, the Centre for Economic Policy Studies. "European and Japanese growth rates must strengthen, first and foremost to improve the lives of people, but also to address global imbalances," he said. Departing from his speech notes, Snow said: "European leaders acknowledge that Europe is performing below its potential." He said he hopes the EU retains the political will to continue implementing structural reforms." But he conceded: "Our growth rates aren't as high as they could be. I don't think we've reached our potential by any means." He also said growth divergences across the US are cause for concern. He said nonethless that the US economy is "growing at a good rate". The US government is making progress in trimming its budget deficit, which is expected to be "well below 2 pct" of GDP by the time President George Bush leaves office, he said. Snow said of global economic imbalances that "they need to be dealt with and this is the time to deal with them". He reiterated the US' call for China to introduce flexibility to its exchange rate policy, saying their dialogue is going well. In his speech notes, he said that "China is now ready to take immediate and significant action to achieve currency flexibility".