By Mike Peacock
LONDON (Reuters) - Japan and France offered a helping hand to their banks on Tuesday and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) prepared to intervene in financial trouble spots in several corners of the world.
Despite tentative signs investors were beginning to regain confidence, the IMF was poised to help Pakistan -- which said it needed up to $15 billion (8.8 billion pounds). Ukraine also said it was close to agreeing measures to allow it to receive aid.
Shares in top French banks rose sharply after the government moved to lend 10.5 billion euros (8.16 billion pounds) to six banks to boost their capital reserves.
Paris last week earmarked 360 billion euros as part of an international effort to help banks survive the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression almost 80 years ago.
In Japan, Economics Minister Kaoru Yosano said the country's big banks could get public funds if needed, as the government considered recasting a law aimed mainly at regional banks to up the flow of finance to credit-starved small firms.
"I can't see any reason why big banks should be discriminated against," Yosano told a news conference.
Analysts say major Japanese banks may not need the help having largely avoided risky credit products.
RECESSION THREATENS
Governments around the world have already promised about $3.3 trillion to guarantee bank deposits and bank-to-bank lending and in some cases have taken stakes in struggling banks.
Efforts are ongoing -- the Bank of England allocated $26 billion in an auction of unlimited one-month funds on Tuesday and the Saudi central bank poured $2-$3 billion into its banking system, its first direct injection of dollars in a decade.
The United Arab Emirates Ministry said it had injected 25 billion dirhams (4 billion pounds) into banks to help lenders cope with the financial crisis.
There are some signs the efforts are paying dividends.
The interbank cost of borrowing dollars, euros and sterling fell across all maturities, with dollar overnight rates were fixed below the Federal Reserve's 1.5 percent target for its official federal funds rate.
Barclays is close to issuing a 3-year note to raise at least 1 billion pounds, a further sign British government rescue plans are thawing funding markets.
But the crisis will not conclusively be over until central bank and government support is removed and bank-to-bank lending -- frozen for much of the last year by uncertainty over which groups faced financial disaster -- is flowing freely again.
In the meantime, the world teeters on the edge of recession.
Euro zone economic growth will fall to just 0.2 percent next year with the bloc's biggest economy, Germany, stagnating, the IMF forecast on Tuesday.
"Day by day, the evidence builds that we are facing a serious economic slowdown," European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso told the European Parliament.
IMF TO ACT
Pakistan is expected to seek a multi-billion-dollar rescue package from the IMF and other bodies to avert a balance of payments crisis when officials meet in Dubai on Tuesday.
"Immediately, we don't need more than $10-$15 billion," Shaukat Tarin, the prime minister's economic affairs adviser, told Dawn News television channel.
Pakistan is in a critical condition, with the central bank holding barely enough foreign currency to cover six weeks of imports and inflation running at 25 percent.
Iceland, driven close to bankruptcy as frozen credit markets caused its banks to fail, is still deciding whether to take IMF money although the FT reported it was set to receive a $6 billion IMF-led rescue package soon.
Ukraine is in talks over an IMF loan of up to $14 billion and Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko said: "we have practically concluded our negotiations with the IMF."
World leaders will hold a summit after the November 4 U.S. presidential election to set "principles of reform" needed to fix the financial system. The role of the IMF as global financial guardian is likely to be prominent on that agenda.
EU leaders will try to convince China and India in talks in Beijing this week to join the summit. France also wants more regular meetings of leaders of the 15-nation euro zone.
"It's not possible for the euro zone to continue without clearly identified economic governance. We cannot continue in this way," French President Nicolas Sarkozy, who holds the European Union presidency, told the European Parliament.
STOCKS UP, POLICYMAKERS UPBEAT
The FTSEurofirst 300 index of top European shares rose 1.2 percent, extending its winning streak to a third day, as investors cheered the French move to bolster its banks.
Shares on Wall Street climbed on Monday after Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke backed more government spending to help the economy. But U.S. stock futures pointed to a lower opening on Tuesday, of around 1.0-1.2 percent.
On the whole, policymakers sounded more upbeat.
European Central Bank Executive Board member Juergen Stark said more "accidents" might occur in the global financial system but government actions had left Europe better placed to cope.
The head of Australia's central bank said a sharp interest rate cut this month and fiscal stimulus should buoy the economy.
"The likelihood of a global catastrophe has in fact declined over the past couple of weeks," said Glenn Stevens, Australia's central bank governor.
(Reporting from Reuters bureaus around the world; editing by Keith Weir)
