WASHINGTON  Treasury Secretary Henry M. Paulson Jr. sought Friday to assure the finance ministers and central bankers of the world’s wealthiest countries that the American economic picture could improve later this year and that the administration was doing all it could to hasten the recovery.

But Mr. Paulson, speaking at a news conference Friday evening after meeting with the ministers during the day, suggested that the slump had yet to run its course and that “the risks are to the downside.”

He said the ministers generally supported the actions the administration and the Federal Reserve had taken in recent months, including the lowering of interest rates, the Fed’s intervention to prevent the bankruptcy of Bear Stearns and the $150 billion package to stimulate the economy enacted earlier this year.

“I explained that we’re watching this very closely,” Mr. Paulson said, adding that the housing bubble of the last several years had been “unsustainable” and that the decline in housing prices was “not pleasant” but “what needs to happen” for recovery to take place.