Washington - The US government is weighing the possibility of taking ownership stakes in banks to bolster its effort to restore confidence in financial markets, the White House confirmed Thursday.

US Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson has been granted the authority to buy stakes in the banks as part of the Bush administration's broad policy to rescue the financial sector, White House spokeswoman Dana Perino said.

"It would include an equity stake," Perino said, before adding "that is a part of the range of authorities that they were given."

New York  - In the takeover battle over the United States' fourth-largest bank Wachovia, Citigroup and Wells Fargo on Thursday halted mutual lawsuits for another day.

The rivals, which have offered competing bids for the ailing banking giant, accepted a compromise brokered by the US Federal Reserve to delay legal action until Friday.

However, the talks also brought to light even higher risks than expected in the possible takeover of the bank, the Wall Street Journal reported.

Kiev  - Ukraine's already-unstable banking sector appeared even more shaky on Thursday with dozens of banks applying formally for government assistance.

A total of 25 loan institutions have filed requests for low- interest credits or other state financing, said Anatoly Shapovalov, a spokesman for the National Bank of Ukraine
(NBU), according to an Interfax news agency report.

The NBU announcement came one day after the Ukrainian government unveiled an unprecedented one-billion-dollar bail-out of Prominevestbank, the country's sixth-largest lender.

Reykjavik - Iceland's largest bank group Kaupthing was Thursday taken over by the Icelandic Financial Supervisory Authority.

Kaupthing was the third of the North Atlantic nation's major banks to be taken over by the agency under provisions of special legislation adopted late Monday.

Earlier this week the agency took over Landsbanki and Glitnir.

Kaupthing's domestic deposits were "fully guaranteed" and domestic operations were to remain open for business as usual, the agency said adding that the move was "guarantee a functioning domestic banking system."

Bratislava - The Slovak government Wednesday agreed to provide unlimited guarantees for bank deposits of individuals and small businesses, officials said.

The proposal, in line with such decision taken by Germany and Austria, requires parliamentary approval.

Slovakia currently protects 90 per cent of deposits up to 600,000 Slovak koruny (27,000 dollars).

Slovak banks contribute 0.2 per cent of new deposits to a compensation fund. The government so far does not propose to increase the payments, according to spokesman Branislav Ondrus.

Kiev- The National Bank of Ukraine (NBU) on Wednesday moved to bail out one of the country's banks, extending a low cost credit and banning claims by creditors.

Persons or businesses owed money by Prominvestbank, Ukraine's sixth largest bank, will not be able to press any claims against the company for the next six months, an NBU statement read in part.