US Senate passes bailout

US: The US Senate has resoundingly passed a sweetened US $ 700-billion Wall Street bailout, spurring hopes the House of Representatives would follow suit after killing an earlier bid to avert a world financial meltdown.

The Senate voted 74-25 late Wednesday to back the amended Bush administration bailout plan, designed to ease a deepening credit freeze and volatility on global stock markets spawned by the crisis on Wall Street.

Just over a month from election day, presidential candidates Barack Obama and John McCain also backed the effort, piling pressure on the House, which sent shockwaves around the world on Monday by rejecting the package.

President George W. Bush welcomed the passage of the bill, and called on the House to act in the next two days to avoid further damage to the US economy, amid conflicting signals over the bill's prospects.

"The American people expect and our economy demands that the House pass this good bill this week and send it to my desk," Bush said in a statement.

The Senate sweetened the original deal, which gives the US Treasury the power to buy up toxic mortgage debt choking the financial industry, to court conservative Republicans who helped block the original version in the House.

New talks were underway in the House meanwhile on tweaking the package to ensure it gets through on a second vote, after lawmakers sensationally killed off the original bill on Monday by 228 to 205 votes..

"Still, traders remain worried over whether the House of Representatives will pass the bill," Mitsuru Sahara, a senior dealer at Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi UFJ, told Dow Jones Newswires.

US President George W. Bush said the House would vote on the modified version on Friday.Washington, Thursday, AFP