Sydney - Australians welcomed Saturday the US Congressional approval of a financial services' industry bail-out package, but doubted it would end turbulence on world markets.

"This is a positive step forward in restoring stability to the global banking system," Prime Minister Kevin Rudd said. "But there's still much, much more work to be done."

Opposition Liberal Party leader Malcolm Turnbull said the fall on US stock markets after the bill went through was evidence the crisis was far from over.

"I wouldn't be surprised if there weren't more bad days on Wall Street," the former merchant banker said. "I hope now that the trend will be to improve, and certainly it would be in a much worse position had this bailout not been passed into law."

Analysts said the Australian stock market was likely to open around 1-per-cent lower on Monday in keeping with the weakening on Wall Street. Almost all are predicting at least an interest rate cut of 0.25 per cent when the Reserve Bank of Australia board meets on Tuesday.

The expected rate cut would likely further weaken the Australian dollar, which in the last trade of the week fell to 78 cents against the US dollar - the lowest it has been since the credit crunch began more than a year ago.

RBC Capital Markets economist Su-Lin Ong said global weakness was adding to the downward pressure on the local currency.

"Every sign we've seen is pretty poor," she told The Sydney Morning Herald. "From the global credit situation through to a number of central banks signaling they are ready to cut rates." (dpa)