Paul Volcker, senior economic adviser to President Barack Obama, said on Saturday that the U.S. economic recovery will be a long slog but that the rate of decline should slow.

An unprecedented tumble in economic activity in late 2008 has left the United States in a great recession, Volcker said at a conference at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tennessee.

Volcker, a former chairman of the Federal Reserve, said troubles in the financial system continue to work against the economy, and vice versa.

The lack of a good, strong recovery works against a strong financial system, he said.

(Reporting By Ros Krasny and Kristina Cooke; Editing by Leslie Adler)

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