Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner is all set to urge key officials of Europe to take decisive action next week at a make-or-break summit for preventing a debt crisis from turning into runaway contagion.

Treasury announced Geithner would be meeting French President Nicolas Sarkozy, new Italian Prime Minister Mario Monti, and Spanish Prime Minister-elect Mariano Rajoy on the December 6-8 trip.

Jan Eberly, the Treasury’s chief economist, said a European recession brought about by the debt crisis would pose serious risks to the U.S. economy.

“That’s a substantial exposure from U.S. economy to what happens in Europe, so that’s absolutely a source of concern,” Eberly, the assistant secretary for economic policy, told reporters.