With both majority Democrats and the US president's own Republican Party lining up against a mammoth 700-billion-dollar rescue plan for Wall Street, US President George Bush was to speak to the nation Wednesday evening (0100 GMT Thursday) to drum up support.

The escalating US financial crisis, which has frozen credit around the world, is now impacting the US presidential campaign, with Republican nominee John McCain, 72, suspending his campaign and heading back to Washington Thursday in a bid to break the legislative logjam.

Democratic nominee Obama said that he did not want to "confuse" Congress with presidential politics and would return to the Senate from the campaign trail only at the request of his Democratic Party's legislative leaders.

Washington- Federal Reserve chief Ben Bernanke Wednesday defended the US government's unprecedented interventions in capital markets over the past months, telling Congress that the stability of the US financial system faced "grave threats."

He painted a gloomy picture for future growth, saying "greater- than-normal uncertainty" surrounded any forecast of the pace of activity.

"The downside risks to the outlook ... remain a significant concern," Bernanke told the Joint Economic Committee of the US Congress.

Brussels - Europe's financial system remains "solid" and does not need a US-style plan to buy up "toxic assets" with public money, European Union officials said Wednesday.

However, there is "no doubt" that the global financial crisis is hurting Europe's real economy, with the bloc's economic and monetary affairs commissioner, Joaquin Almunia, warning that "we expect growth in both the EU and the euro area to remain relatively weak next year."

Washington, Se4p 25 : Berkshire Hathaway has agreed to invest at least 5 billion dollars in Goldman Sachs Group, with billionaire investor Warren Buffett backing a Wall Street firm that’s begun transforming itself into a more-stable banking business.

In addition to buying 5 billion dollars in preferred stock, Berkshire also got warrants to buy another 5 billion dollars in Goldman’s common stock. Goldman said on late Tuesday that it would raise another 2.5 billion dollars in its own public stock offering.

The news sent shares of Goldman Sachs and stock index futures soaring in electronic trading, after the Dow Jones Industrial Average posted a triple-digit decline for the second day in a row, CBS News reported.

Munich - German business confidence slipped more sharply than expected this month, with the Ifo institute of Munich saying Wednesday its index falling to 92.9 points, from 94.8 in August.

It was the fourth straight month in which the index fell.

Economists who watch the index closely had on average predicted the September reading would only fall to 94.1.

Ifo's separate index of business expectations declined marginally from 87.0 in August to 86.5 in September, whereas the assessment of the current position slumped from
103.2 to 99.8.

The index sums up a monthly survey of 7,000 executives, economists and other business leaders.