KEY POINTS:
President George W. Bush yesterday signed a historic US$700 billion ($1 trillion) Wall St bailout but markets slumped as investors realised the bill would not be an instant fix for the crisis.
The House of Representatives approved the largest US Government economic intervention since the 1930s, after sparking market and political turmoil by rejecting an earlier version.
Democratic leaders credited White House nominee Barack Obama for helping to win over wavering Democrats to end the political crisis.
Members said the combination of tumbling stocks, which pulled down market-linked pension plans, and a credit freeze which had bitten deep into the economy, had changed the political calculation during the week.
McCain called the package a necessary "outrage" and vowed to clean up Wall St if elected. "This rescue bill is not perfect, and it is an outrage that it's even necessary," he said. "But we must stop the damage to our economy done by corrupt and incompetent practices on Wall St and in Washington."
Top House Republican John Boehner said that the final version of the bailout was superior to the original, which some critics described as a "blank cheque".
"The passage of this flawed but necessary bill is not cause for celebration," he said, saying Congress had allowed sectors of the finance industry to "run amok".
House speaker Nancy Pelosi signed the package, which allows the US Treasury to buy bad mortgages choking the US economy, and sent it to Bush for his signature.
And she paid tribute to Obama. "I really want to commend Barack Obama," said Pelosi, a Democrat, saying the Illinois senator had reassured lawmakers facing tough re-election fights. "He really gave them confidence that this was the right thing to do."
Obama called on the Treasury to carry out the rescue plan in a way that "protects taxpayers" and helps avert further foreclosures. "I want those plans on tap quick so that we start getting some relief to homeowners," he said.
Democratic representatives Donna Edwards and Elijah Cummings said Obama had called them after they voted against the original package. "It meant a lot to me that somebody who at least has a 50-50 shot at being the next president of the United States would take time," Cummings said.
The Senate passed the revised version of the package on Thursday, including sweeteners and tax breaks to get more House Republicans behind the legislation.
The debate resumed amid more shocking news for the world's largest economy which shed some 159,000 jobs in September, as the weight of the housing collapse and credit crunch hit a broad swathe of industries.
