MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Japan's Nikkei joins other Asian markets strong rebound

Financial markets in Asia have risen sharply, with Japan's Nikkei gaining 10% in early trading Tuesday, and Sydney up 5%. The gains came after Wall Street shares rocketed 11% on Monday as investors welcomed fresh moves to deal with the worldwide financial crisis. Japan was closed Monday because of a national holiday.

Investors were helped by news the US government wanted to put in place its 700 billon US dollars bank bail-out quickly. President George W Bush is due to make a statement shortly before US markets open later on Tuesday. He will speak after meeting his working group on financial markets. On Monday US Treasury and Federal Reserve Bank officials met the chief executives of some of US biggest banks, to work out details of the US bail-out package. The US has said it was also getting ready to follow in Europe's footsteps and purchase stakes in financial institutions. On Monday the US Treasury announced it was set to buy stakes in a "broad array" of financial firms. European governments have said they are putting up to 1.7 trillion Euros (2.3 trillion US dollars) to protect the continent's banks through guarantees and other emergency measures. The sums are a maximum, and might not all be spent if the financial crisis eases. So far Germany has approved a bank rescue plan worth up to 500bn euros, France will spend about 350bn euros, the Netherlands has pledged 200bn euros, Spain 100bn euros, and Austria 85bn euros. Italy said it would spend as much as was needed, without giving any exact figures. The bulk of the European money will be used to guarantee lending between banks - part of a plan agreed this weekend by the 15 nations that use the Euro. The cash will also be used to take stakes in ailing banks, with the UK government saying it would inject up to £36bn of taxpayers cash into Royal Bank of Scotland, Lloyds TSB and HBOS.