  A general algorithm toward the solution of the fermion sign problem in
finite-temperature quantum Monte Carlo simulations has been formulated for
discretized fermion path integrals with nearest-neighbor interactions in the
Trotter direction. This multilevel approach systematically implements a simple
blocking strategy in a recursive manner to synthesize the sign cancellations
among different fermionic paths throughout the whole configuration space. The
practical usefulness of the method is demonstrated for interacting electrons in
a quantum dot.
