WASHINGTON – Federal Reserve policymakers may signal at their meeting this week how and when the improving economy will lead them to start raising record-low interest rates.

Higher rates are still months away, Chairman Ben Bernanke and other Fed officials have signaled in appearances on Capitol Hill and in speeches. They've indicated that low rates are still required to foster the economic rebound.

Yet once the recovery is firmly entrenched, Fed policymakers will need to raise rates to keep inflation in check. Before they do, they first will want to signal that credit will soon be tightened. The trick is doing so without jolting investors and borrowers, who would face higher rates on certain credit cards, some mortgages and other loans.

How best to telegraph the approach of higher rates is likely to dominate discussions when Bernanke and his colleagues meet Tuesday. In particular, the Fed will decide whether to keep, or water down, its year-long pledge to keep rates at "exceptionally low" levels for an "extended period." Economists generally think "extended period" means at least six more months.

The Fed could drop that commitment altogether. Or it could pledge to keep rates low for "some time," which is viewed as briefer than an extended period. Or it could change its language in some other way to stress that credit will be tightened when the time is right. Any such step would send a signal that the days of easy money are fading.

The push for change is already under way inside the Fed. At its last meeting in late January, Thomas Hoenig, president of the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City, favored changing the language to say rates would stay low for "some time," according to the meeting's minutes.

Hoenig said he thought such a change would give the Fed more flexibility to start raising rates, the minutes said. And he said a move toward "modestly higher" rates should happen soon.

Hoenig and other "hawks" on the Fed worry more about inflation heating up because of record-low rates than about keeping rates low to try to reduce the unemployment rate, now at 9.7 percent.

The fact that the jobless rate, though high, hasn't budged for two months and fewer jobs are being lost than a year ago suggests the recovery is on track. Factory and service-sector activity is picking up. Consumers and businesses are spending enough to keep the economy growing moderately.

Chris Rupkey, an economist at the Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi, doesn't rule out a change in the "extended period" language at Tuesday's meeting. Others think a wording change is more likely at the Fed's next scheduled meeting, April 27-28. By then, the Fed would have another reading on the employment climate.

"Markets are not ready for a change yet," said Terry Connelly, dean of Golden Gate University's Ageno School of Business in San Francisco.

Though the economy is healing from the worst recession since the 1930s, "the economic recovery is still very fragile," William Dudley, president of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, said in a March 11 speech.

Investors also will be looking to see if the Fed makes any changes to an economic-support program that's lowered mortgage rates and bolstered the housing market. Under that program, the Fed is scheduled to end its mortgage-securities purchases from Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac at the end of this month.

Some analysts fear that once the program ends, mortgage rates could rise. That could weaken the recovery in housing and the overall economy. The Fed has left the door open to extending the program if the economy weakens.

The average rate on 30-year fixed mortgages dipped to 4.95 percent in the week that ended March 11, from 4.97 percent a week earlier, according to mortgage finance company Freddie Mac. Rates have been hovering around 5 percent.

It is all but certain that the Fed will keep its key interest rate at a record low Tuesday. It's held its target range for its bank lending rate at zero to 0.25 percent since December 2008. In response, commercial banks' prime lending rate, used to peg rates on certain credit cards and consumer loans, has remained about 3.25 percent — its lowest in decades.

Super-low rates benefit borrowers who qualify for loans and are willing to take on more debt. But they hurt savers. Low rates are especially hard on people living on fixed incomes who are earning measly returns on savings accounts and certificates of deposit.

When will the Fed boost rates? No earlier than June — and more likely sometime this fall, Rupkey and others said. Some investors don't think it will be until about November, said T.J. Marta, a market strategist.

The timing is a tough challenge for Bernanke. If he and other Fed policymakers raise rates too soon, they risk derailing the recovery. But if they wait too long, they could unleash inflation or fuel speculative bubbles in assets such as stocks.

SAN DIEGO – Investigators with Toyota Motor Corp. and the federal government could not replicate the runaway speeding reported by a Prius owner who said his car's accelerator stuck as he drove on a California freeway, according to a memo drafted for a congressional panel.

The memo, obtained Saturday by The Associated Press, said the experts who examined and test drove the car could not replicate the sudden, unintended acceleration James Sikes said he encountered. A backup mechanism that shuts off the engine when the brake and gas pedals are floored also worked properly during tests.

Sikes, 61, called 911 on Monday to report losing control of his 2008 Prius as the hybrid reached speeds of 94 mph. A California Highway Patrol officer helped Sikes bring the vehicle to a safe stop on Interstate 8 near San Diego.

The incident happened at the worst possible time for Toyota, which has recalled millions of cars because of floor mats that can snag gas pedals or accelerators that can sometimes stick. Just hours before the incident, Toyota had called reporters to its Torrance, Calif. office to hear experts refute claims that the company had not identified — or fixed — what might be causing its cars to speed out of control.

Sikes' car was covered by the floor mat recall but not the one for sticky accelerators. He later told reporters that he tried to pull on the gas pedal during his harrowing ride, but it didn't "move at all."

During two hours of test drives of Sikes' car Thursday, technicians with Toyota and the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration failed to duplicate the same experience that Sikes described, according to the memo written by the Republican staff of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform. One congressional staff member observed the investigation of Sikes' Prius.

"Every time the technician placed the gas pedal to the floor and the brake pedal to the floor the engine shut off and the car immediately started to slow down," the memo said.

Also, the Prius is designed to shut down if the brakes are applied while the gas pedal is pressed to the floor. If it doesn't, the engine would "completely seize," according to the report that cited Toyota's "residential Hybrid expert."

"It does not appear to be feasibly possible, both electronically and mechanically that his gas pedal was stuck to the floor and he was slamming on the brake at the same time," according to the memo.

The memo did say that investigators found the front brake pads were spent.

"Visually checking the brake pads and rotor it was clearly visible that there was nothing left," it said.

But the wear was not consistent with the brakes being applied at full force for a long period, the Wall Street Journal reported Saturday, citing three people familiar with the probe, whom it did not name. The newspaper said the brakes may have been applied intermittently.

Toyota Corp. spokesman Mike Michels declined to confirm the Journal's report. He said the investigation was continuing and the company planned to release technical findings soon.

Jill Zuckman, spokeswoman for the U.S. Transportation Department that oversees the highway safety agency, said investigators "are still reviewing data and have not reached any conclusions."

The findings raise questions about "the credibility of Mr. Sikes' reporting of events," said Kurt Bardella, a spokesman for California Rep. Darrell Issa, the top Republican on the oversight committee.

Sikes could not be reached to comment. However, his wife, Patty Sikes, said he stands by his story.

"Everyone can just leave us alone," she said. "Jim didn't get hurt. There's no intent at all to sue Toyota. If any good can come out of this, maybe they can find out what happened so other people don't get killed."

Mrs. Sikes said the couple's lives have been turned upside down since Monday and they are getting death threats.

"We're just fed up with all of it," she said. "Our careers are ruined and life is just not good anymore."

Monday's incident appeared to be another blow to Toyota, which has had to fend off intense public backlash over safety after recalls of some 8.5 million vehicles worldwide — more than 6 million in the United States — because of acceleration and floor mat problems in multiple models and braking issues in the Prius. Regulators have linked 52 deaths to crashes allegedly caused by accelerator problems.

Sikes called 911 from the freeway on Monday and reported that his gas pedal was stuck. In two calls that spanned 23 minutes, a dispatcher repeatedly told him to throw the car into neutral and turn it off. Sikes later said he had put down the phone to keep both hands on the wheel and was afraid the car would flip if he put it in neutral at such high speed.

The officer eventually pulled alongside the car and told Sikes over a loudspeaker to push the brake pedal to the floor and apply the emergency brake.

Once the car slowed to 50 mph, Sikes shut off the engine, the officer said.

The congressional memo obtained by the AP describes a series of tests conducted by Toyota and the NHTSA on Wednesday and Thursday. A full diagnostics was conducted, followed an inspection of the brakes and a test drive. Investigators also compared the Sikes vehicle to a 2008 Prius provided by a Toyota dealership.

NHTSA told congressional staff that the results "were the same on both vehicles and within the manufactures specifications," according to the memo.

Following the tests, NHTSA paid Sikes $2,500 for the gas pedal, throttle body and the two computers from his vehicle, the memo said.

Drivers of two other Toyota vehicles that crashed last week said those incidents also resulted from the vehicles accelerating suddenly.

NHTSA is sending experts to a New York City suburb where the driver of a 2005 Prius said she crashed into a stone wall Monday after the car accelerated on its own.

And in Fort Wayne, Indiana, the driver of a 2007 Lexus said it careened through a parking lot and crashed into a light pole Thursday after its accelerator suddenly dropped to the floor. That car was the subject of a floor mat recall. Driver Myrna Cook of Paulding, Ohio, said it had been repaired.

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Thomas reported from Washington, D.C.

BEIJING – China sought Sunday to deflate rising pressure from the U.S. and other powers over Chinese economic policies and growing assertiveness in world affairs, with its prime minister promising cooperation to bolster the global recovery.

Premier Wen Jiabao took on critics in the West who say Chinese policies lift China while keeping global growth anemic. He defended China's currency against charges that it is undervalued to boost Chinese exports. He promised that Beijing would import more and urged countries to resist protectionism, saying one country should not seek to disadvantage others during the fragile economic recovery.

"We are opposed to the position of engaging in mutual finger-pointing or taking strong measures to force other countries to adjust exchange rates," Wen said in a more than two-hour news conference.

Wen also criticized Washington for souring relations with the recent White House reception for the Dalai Lama, the exiled leader of Chinese-controlled Tibet, and for approving arms sales to Taiwan, which China claims as its own. "The responsibility does not lie with the Chinese side, but the United States," he said.

His arguments, while breaking little new ground, were offered in Wen's characteristically mild, carefully rational manner. No. 3 in the Communist Party hierarchy and chiefly in charge of the economy, Wen is also the generally stiff leadership's most popular figure; grand-fatherly and solicitous, he is known as the "people's premier."

His news conference is the only one Wen holds all year and is thus often used by the government to send a message to the public and world. Questions from the foreign and domestic media were prescreened.

This year, Beijing is on the defensive in Western capitals. Beijing's seeming intransigence at climate change talks in Copenhagen riled some. Other governments are grappling with high rates of unemployment and swelling deficits to fend off recession, even as the Chinese economy bounced back to 10.7 percent growth last year. The Chinese currency, known as the yuan or the renminbi, has become a focal point for criticism in Washington, Europe and other countries.

U.S. President Barack Obama in a speech last Thursday urged China to move "to a more market-oriented exchange rate" to help rebalance world growth. More ominously, the Treasury Department must report to Congress in April whether China qualifies as a "currency manipulator" — a label that could precede a complaint to the World Trade Organization and possible sanctions on Chinese goods.

With these storm clouds brewing, Wen said more coordination was needed among economic powers to prevent the world economy from sagging into a "double-dip" recession. He cited high unemployment rates, debt crises in nations such as Greece and high government deficits abroad, while at home, he said, there are worries about inflation and businesses' over-reliance on the massive stimulus and loans China used last year to keep the economy running.

"I believe that free trade not only promotes growth of the world economy. At the same time, it promotes harmony in the world and changes and improves people's lives," Wen said.

Wen spoke following the closing of the annual session of the party-dominated national legislature, which earlier Sunday approved a blueprint to keep government spending high, though at half the rate of last year, to buffer any economic turbulence. Sizable increases were given to education, pensions and low-cost housing — part of a yearslong effort by Wen and President Hu Jintao to more fairly spread the benefits of growth among rural and working-class Chinese.

Wen spoke frankly that economic ills left untended could threaten Communist rule. A particularly toxic combination, he said, were inflation, the rich-poor income gap and corruption — all current problems.

"These will be strong enough to affect our social stability and even the stability of state power," he said.

Normally high security in Beijing was tightened further in the past two weeks for the National People's Congress and a meeting of the top government advisory body. After Wen's news conference, police dragged away and put into a van at least two people — one of whom was complaining about a housing dispute — as they tried to get the attention of officials and reporters outside the hulking Great Hall of the People. A third person, who said he was a teacher, was led away separately.

Turning the tables on the U.S., Wen renewed appeals for assurances from Washington about the safety of China's $800 billion in foreign exchange reserves invested in U.S. Treasury securities. Wen said the value of the U.S. dollar was a "big concern" and asked Washington to take unspecified steps to reassure investors.

Wen also fired back at critics of China's performance at the last year's Copenhagen climate change conference. Asked why he skipped a meeting of some foreign leaders, including Obama, Wen said he was snubbed, having never been formally invited, and so sent a vice foreign minister instead.

"So far no one has given us any explanation about this and it still is a mystery," he said.

When asked if China would play a bigger role in international affairs, Wen said China is still a developing country, focused on improving living standards, and even when rich and powerful, it would not seek to dominate others.