THE TELEGRAPH: A £380 billion deal to save the world's economy has been struck in the US after Republicans and Democrats reached a "fundamental agreement" to bolster America's banks.
Standing alongside his Republican counterpart, Senator Chris Dodd, the Democratic chairman of the Senate Banking Committee, said a deal on a set of principles to be voted on by Congress would be to be passed within the "next few days".
The bill represents a dramatic attempt to prevent the global economy plunging into a deep recession.
The outline deal came as President George W. Bush, the two candidates vying to replace him and congressional leaders were preparing a crisis summit at the White House to hammer out final details.
Representative Barney Frank, Democratic chairman of the House Financial Services Committee, said he would tell Mr Bush there "really is not much of a deadlock to break" because a skeleton package had been agreed by both parties in Congress.
Dana Perino, Mr Bush's press secretary, said that "significant progress" had been made.
"We have a framework that we can try to close on and we hope that we can get it done quickly."
She would not, however, outline specifics about provisions the Bush administration saw as deal breakers. "We have made a few steps forward and they've come a few steps our way. So we're reaching a consensus and we're going to try to drive that to a conclusion today."
The summit came after Mr Bush issued a portentous warning that "America could slip into a final panic", triggering a deep recession in which "millions of Americans could lose their jobs" without "immediate action" by Congress.
Mr Bush's proposed bailout plan involved the federal government buying up the assets of tottering financial companies, an intervention designed to keep credit markets open and heading off economic disaster on the scale of the Great Depression of the 1930s. Financial Crisis: Republicans and Democrats Agree £380 Billion Bail-out Deal >>> By Toby Harnden in Washington | September 25, 2008
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