BRUSSELS, Belgium - The head of the International Monetary Fund said Thursday that the worst of the global financial turbulence appears to be over but predicted the effects would be felt for some time.

IMF Managing Director Dominique Strauss-Kahn warned that tight global credit conditions may go one even though there are "good reasons to believe the worst news (is) behind us."

Changes in consumer behaviour triggered by a meltdown in financial markets will continue to ripple through economies worldwide, he said, meaning there will be no broad recovery before the end of this year, and possible not until mid-2009.

Strauss-Kahn said the U.S. economy would only pick up once the housing market is stabilized.

"Even if we argue that the biggest part of the financial crisis is behind us, what is important is that the economic consequences of this crisis are in front of us," he said.

The U.S. Federal Reserve, fighting a severe credit crunch and economic weakness, has cut interest rates seven times since September in an effort to keep the country from toppling into a recession.

"In the U.S., the housing crisis is still there. When you look at the housing prices in the U.S. they're still going down, there's not a single sign of stabilization. Until we see some improvement on the housing market we'll probably have no improvement in the U.S.," Strauss-Kahn said.

He added that emerging economies - which will account for the bulk of global economic growth this year - are not immune to the damage from complex derivative investments that set off a global financial crisis, which started in August.

He said the rise in global food prices - which has led to food riots and high inflation in different parts of the world - was part of the crisis as investors flee the weak dollar and sink money into commodities.

Nor are the 15 nations that use the euro shielded from problems in the U.S., he said, warning that the next six to nine months would be "a very interesting stress test" for the euro area.

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