Washington - As the world's richest nations debate how to bring a catastrophic financial crisis under control, international groups are warning that its reach now goes far beyond the developed world.

Poor countries in Africa, Asia and Latin America, which are already dealing with a surge in food and energy prices, are now finding it harder to sell goods abroad and encourage investment in their own economies.

Amsterdam - The Netherlands late Thursday made available another 20 billion euros to shore up the liquidity of banks embattled by the global financial crisis, Finance Minister Wouter Bos said.

Dutch central bank chief Nout Wellink said the funds would be made available for all financial firms that need it, including insurance groups.

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."