Washington  - Under pressure to rapidly adopt a rescue plan for the nation's finance system, US senators on Tuesday expressed anger at the prospect of bailing out Wall Street risk-takers but acknowledged the urgency of the issue.

US President George W Bush is asking Congress to pass an unprecedented 700-billion-dollar bailout of the financial sector, including buying up bad mortgage debts that have brought the banking system and the nation's economy to the brink of ruin.

But battle lines were drawn as legislators demanded oversight and insisted that taxpayers receive ownership of shares and that limits be placed on the compensation of executives at companies benefiting from the bailout.

Bush's financial gurus, Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson and Federal Reserve head Ben Bernanke, went with hat in hand to the Senate banking committee to plea for rapid passage without any add- ons or limitations by Congress.

But committee chairman Chris Dodd, a member of the majority Democratic Party, made clear the resistance to the plan.

"After reading this proposal, I can only conclude that it is not just our economy that is at risk, but our Constitution as well," Dodd said.

Senators said their phones have been ringing off the hook from constituents angry about the prospect that their tax money will be used to bailout the high flying, highly paid risk takers on Wall Street.

"One man drove seven hours to get here today," said Senator Sherrod Brown of Ohio. "He wanted to know why we are rushing to bailout companies whose leaders got rich by gambling with other people's money."

Bernanke and Paulson last week told Congress that the country was "perhaps days from the collapse of financial markets" unless it adopted the 700-billion-dollar plan, according to one senator.

On Tuesday, they repeated the urgency of the situation, after being pressed by the Senate panel about why they were being given only one week to adopt the plan and what would happen if Congress didn't adopt it.

"The financial markets are in a quite fragile condition," Bernanke said. "Credit is not being provided, non-financial companies cannot finance themselves overnight ... jobs will be lost ... more homes will be foreclosed on."

Bernanke said that if the plan is not adopted, the fallout would be a "major drag on the economy and greatly impede the ability of the economy to recover" from its current malaise.

The 700 billion dollars represents about 5 per cent of all outstanding mortgages in the country, the officials said.

Bernanke said the risk of inaction would affect the entire country including people who have jobs, people "getting ready to retire", and people sending children to college. (dpa)