Global growth to cushion U.S. econ: Bloomberg

TOKYO (Reuters) - Former Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan was quoted as having played down his earlier concern about a possible U.S. recession, saying the world economy would provide a cushion, Bloomberg reported on Monday.

Greenspan was speaking via satellite link from Washington to a financial forum in Tokyo and his comments were quoted by a few of the participants, Bloomberg said.

Greenspan said growth in the rest of the world is creating demand for services from firms such as Microsoft Corp., according to Vaseehar Hassan Abdul Razack, chairman of Kuala Lumpur-based RHB Islamic Bank Bhd, who attended the meeting and whose remarks were cited by Bloomberg.

Greenspan didn't mention recession on Monday, according to Anne Okko, who works in funding administration at the Nordic Investment Bank, Bloomberg said.

Okko quoted Greenspan as saying the world economy is on a positive trend, Bloomberg said.

Greenspan said he wasn't particularly worried about subprime-mortgage defaults in the United States because they represent a small portion of the economy, Bloomberg quoted Vaseehar as saying.

The event was hosted by Nomura Securities Co. Ltd. A spokesman for Nomura Securities declined to comment on what Greenspan said.

Worries that the slowing U.S. economy could slip into recession, knocking activity in the rest of the world, had grown recently after Greenspan said in late February that a U.S. recession was possible.