WASHINGTON - Europe will come under heavy pressure this week to stem its deepening debt crisis but talks among the major economies are unlikely to yield bold action.

Spreading fears about a Greek debt default and contagion to larger economies in the euro zone have raised alarm in the United States and among emerging market heavyweights about the risk of a potentially major shock to an ailing global economy.

At talks among the Group of 2O major economies and at the International Monetary Fund in Washington, the United States and big emerging economies such as China, Brazil and India are likely to join the IMF and call on Europe to be more decisive.

But with US political leaders divided on how to fix their own economic problems and no sign of consensus among the so-called BRICS emerging economies on how to help, the chances of a new approach to righting the global economy look slim.

"The G20, all it can do is to provide some peer pressure on the Europeans, to sensitize the Europeans to the huge scope for spillover that the euro crisis is already having," said Domenico Lombardi, a former IMF official and a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution in Washington.

"We should not expect any type of international response along the lines we saw at the height of the financial crisis."

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