US bailout 'will be rolled out quickly'

In a move to ease worries over the worsening US financial crisis, a senior US Treasury official yesterday said the $700 billion bailout will be executed soon to ease the credit seizure that is threatening to plunge the global economy into a recession.

"We will move forward very quickly to execute the rescue program to bring back confidence to the market," David H. McCormick, under-secretary for international affairs of the Treasury, told Chinese media in a teleconference.

The unusual press conference is widely seen to be of particular significance because China is one of the major creditors of the US government through its large holding of US treasury bonds.