The US House of Representatives is preparing to vote on a $700bn (Ј380bn) plan to rescue the US financial sector.
Party leaders are Bush warning over bail-out delay ...
European markets resist big drop after bailout rejection ...
Shares plunge after House rejects bailout ... hoping the House, which stunned global markets by rejecting the initial plan, will follow the Senate and back a new version.
The House is due to debate the deal on Friday morning and is expected to vote later in the day.
Share prices fell in Japan as markets opened on Friday, after a day of losses on the New York stock exchange.
The Nikkei index was down by more than 1% in morning trading, following a sharp fall in US shares on Thursday as investors showed caution over the vote's outcome.
On Wall Street, the Dow Jones index closed down 3.2% on Thursday.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi had said she would not schedule a debate until she thought it had enough votes to pass.
"We're not going to take a bill to the floor that doesn't have the votes. I'm optimistic that we will take a bill to the floor," she said.
Bush appeal
When the Representatives first rejected the plan on Monday by 228 votes to 205, they had concerns about both the content of the plan and the speed with which they were being asked to pass it.
President George W Bush has urged the House to back his revised bill.
The package is aimed at buying up the bad debts of failing institutions on Wall Street.
It has been amended to include extra tax breaks for ordinary Americans and more protection for saving accounts.
Both the Democratic and Republican parties are planning to press their members in the House on Thursday to swing behind the revised bill.
The BBC's Justin Webb in Washington says some members have called for more amendments, which opens up the prospect of further horse-trading continuing up to the point at which votes are cast.
Both the Republican and Democratic House leaders said they believed the bill would probably pass.
Pressure will particularly be applied to the 133 House Republicans who went against party affiliation to reject President Bush's bill, correspondents say.
The bill successfully passed through the Senate on Wednesday after it was amended to raise the government's guarantee on savings from $100,000 to $250,000, include tax breaks to help small businesses, expand child tax credit and extend help to victims of recent hurricanes.
(BBC)
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