Shares surged in New York today after Ben Bernanke, the Chairman of the US Federal Reserve, declared that the recession could end this year.

In a speech to the Council on Foreign Relations, a Washington think-tank, Mr Bernanke gave the most upbeat assessment yet of the global economic meltdown, saying that the gloom could be nearing a close.

"I think there is a good chance the recession will end later this year and 2010 will be a period of growth," he said.

The Dow Jones industrial average surged by 379.44 points or 5.80 per cent to close at 6,926.49 in New York.

However, Mr Bernanke warned that an exit from recession was dependent on the successful efforts of the US Government to help financial markets to operate more normally again.

His comments are in sharp contrast to an earlier bleak assessment from the International Monetary Fund (IMF), which dubbed the global financial crisis the "great recession".

Investors were further buoyed by a leaked memo from Citigroup, the struggling Wall Street bank, in which Vikram Pandit, its chief executive, revealed that the bank was profitable in the first two months of 2009.

He said that the company is also confident about its capital strength.

In his speech Mr Bernanke urged governments to take "forceful action" to stem the meltdown.

He also issued an effective mea culpa for the US's part in the downturn, saying it had failed in its responsibility to carefully invest capital inflows over a decade.

"The responsibility to use ... capital inflows effectively fell primarily on the receiving countries, particularly the United States," he said.

Its failure to "ensure that the ..capital was prudently invested.. has led to a powerful reversal in investor sentiment and a seizing up of credit markets," he said.

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