Several euro zone ministers in Wroclaw seemed peeved that the United States, itself burdened with a large budget gap and debt, was lecturing Europe on what should be done.
"He (Geithner) conveyed dramatically that we need to commit money to avoid bringing the system into difficulty," Austrian Finance Minister Maria Fekter told reporters after the meeting.
"I found it peculiar that even though the Americans have significantly worse fundamental data than the euro zone, they tell us what we should do."
Geithner also pointed out that euro zone finance ministers could boost the firepower of their bailout fund, the 440 billion euro European Financial Stability Facility, through leveraging.
This could ease market concerns that the euro zone does not have enough money to help Spain and Italy if needed.
The idea was not discussed at the meeting with Geithner, but it will be studied by the European Commission as it offers a way to boost EFSF intervention power without more taxpayer money, according to euro zone officials.
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