Washington  - US authorities need broad new emergency powers to take over non-financial firms whose collapse could threaten the wider economy, the country's top economic officials warned Tuesday in the wake of the bail-out of insurance giant American International Group Inc.

Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner and Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke defended the bail-out of AIG, which began in September, as critical to the survival of the US financial system.

But both said the government would have taken full control of AIG, rather than merely loaning them emergency funds, had that option been available. Currently, the government can only take control of banks.

"AIG highlights the urgent need for new resolution procedures for systematically important non-bank financial firms," Bernanke told the Financial Services Committee of the House of Representatives.

The bail-out of AIG, now totalling nearly 180 billion dollars, has provoked tremendous public outrage after it emerged last week that the company paid out 165 million dollars in retention bonuses to executives.

Geithner, who has faced some calls to resign over the AIG scandal, said the bonuses would not have been paid out if the government had been able to take full control of AIG back in September.

New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo said late Monday that 15 of the top 20 bonus recipients have agreed to return the money, totalling about 50 million dollars.

AIG has been exposed to hundreds of billions of dollars in losses as the primary insurer for banks holding subprime mortgages, which have plummeted in value since the US housing bubble began collapsing in late 2006. (dpa)