CORRECTED-U.S. economy growing close to potential - Geithner

(Corrects to give accurate and full quote on Europe)

NEW DELHI, Oct 9 (Reuters) - The U.S economy is now growing close to its potential, U.S Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner said on Tuesday.

Geithner also said during a visit to New Delhi that economic reforms in Europe "could take years and years to bear fruit".

"In these periods of time, where people were very worried about the risk of collapse in Europe, you saw an impact on financial markets and confidence that was very, very substantial," he said at a meeting with Indian and U.S. business leaders. "Europe still has a very hard road ahead of them."

The International Monetary Fund said this week that the looming fiscal tightening in the United States and the euro zone's economic crisis were the two biggest risks facing the world economy.

(Writing by Arup Roychoudhury; Editing by John Chalmers and Ron Popeski)

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Keywords: INDIA USA/GEITHNER