Canadian Finance Minister Jim Flaherty, host of the meeting, said he and his peers were talking about Europe's problems even before their meeting got underway, with particular concern about the situation in Greece which its fiscal sickness was spreading..

World stock markets slid to three-month lows on Friday as the worries intensified about a potentially huge bailout and a destabilization of the euro zone. The euro currency dropped to its lowest since May against the US dollar.

Euro zone countries like Greece, Spain and Portugal are under increasing pressure to show that they will bring public finances under control as financial markets' fears about the situation in one country spread to others.

The organizers of the meeting say there will be no communique at the end of their discussions - in part a reflection of the diminished importance of the G7. It has been replaced as the main forum for discussing the world economy by the wider G20 group that includes China and other big developing economies. Some officials have suggested this weekend's meeting in Canada might be the group's last before becoming a sub-group within the G20.