* In London, Geithner urges action on EU/IMF crisis plan
* UK's Osborne pleased that EU states back bank levy
(Updates after news conference)
By Glenn Somerville and Sumeet Desai
LONDON, May 26 (Reuters) - Europe has the right ideas to solve its fiscal crisis and now needs to put them into practice to calm markets, U.S. Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner said on Wednesday.
But he also once again stressed the need for a common approach to financial regulation, seemingly a swipe at Germany which has gone it alone on banning certain types of speculatative trading.
Geithner was in London at the start of a 2-day European tour to press the case for greater international cooperation and discuss the latest in the crisis spreading through southern Europe, which is sapping global investor confidence.
"The European leaders have put together a very strong programme of reforms on the fiscal side and a very strong commitment on the financial side," he said at a news conference alongside new British finance minister George Osborne.
"I think it's got the right elements and again I see a very strong political commitment -- you see that not just in Germany but across Europe -- to make it work. I think what Europe should do is implement the program they've laid out."
Osborne said that it was in both countries' interests to see stability in the euro zone.
Policymakers in Washington and London have been dismayed by how far the Greek crisis has spread to the rest of the euro zone and once again put the entire world banking system under threat due to what some say was a lack of decisive and early action.
It was the U.S. Treasury that initiated this month's G7 emergency conference calls that led to a $1 trillion EU/IMF rescue package but there is rising concern that this may not have been enough and markets are still falling sharply.
The message from Geithner was that it needed time to work. "It's a good programme (and) has got the right elements. What markets want to see is action," he said.
"The basic lesson from the U.S. crisis is that you have got to act quickly and with force."
GERMAN CONCERN
Geithner also affirmed America's "special relationship" with Britain after his meeting with Osborne, the first since the latter took office two weeks ago in London's new Conservative/Liberal Democrat coaltion government.
The Treasury Secretary, a former Federal Reserve policymaker himself, is also meeting with Bank of England Governor Mervyn King before he flies to Frankfurt for dinner with European Central Bank President Jean-Claude Trichet.
He then goes on to Berlin to meet his German counterpart Wolfgang Schaeuble.
Geithner said he was not here to tell Europe what to do but Washington is clearly irked by Germany's decision to impose a unilateral ban of naked short selling -- the practice of selling instruments which are neither owned or borrowed -- of some securities.
He said that he and Osborne had discussed a common approach to regulation ahead of next month's meeting of G20 finance ministers in Korea and leaders in Canada.
Osborne said he was happy that other European states agreed on the need for a bank levy to fund the cost of future bailouts, and reiterated Britain's position that the funds raised should be treated as general taxation rather than saved until a crisis happens. [ID:nDE64P13E]