TORONTO/WASHINGTON, (Reuters) – World leaders aimed  for a common target yesterday of securing the economic  recovery, but disagreed over how best to reach it.

With two days to go before the Group of 20 summit convenes  in Toronto, officials tried to downplay differences between the  United States and Europe over how quickly to shift from  crisis-fighting mode to budgetary belt-tightening.

“That’s the delicate balance that we need to try to strike  this weekend,” Canadian Finance Minister Jim Flaherty said.

His U.S. counterpart, Timothy Geithner, said each country  needed to decide what policy mix made sense to ensure both  growth and fiscal responsibility.

“Our job is to make sure we’re all sitting there together,  focused on this challenge of growth and confidence because  growth and confidence are paramount,” he said in an interview  with BBC World News America.

The G20 club of rich and emerging economies joined forces  at the height of the global financial panic and poured an  estimated $5 trillion into stimulus spending, emergency loans  and bank guarantees, helping to ward off a global depression.The group still has a long and difficult to-do list,  including forging consensus on new rules about how much capital  that banks must hold, and making sure national financial  regulatory reforms do not clash on a global scale.

The cost of fighting the financial crisis and recession  left gaping holes in government finances, and Greece’s debt  troubles have focused Europe’s attention on the need to shrink  budget deficits before investors lose patience.

European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso said  Europe could no longer afford to borrow and spend, and must  repair budgets in order to rebuild confidence for growth.