But the move has failed to stem the bleeding on the Australian Stock Exchange with the market closing another 0.7pc lower.

While the vote was expected to send a positive signal to global markets - the ASX was just higher prior to the news - the presiding sentiment was that systemic relief to the crisis that has ensnarled global banking and threatened the world's economy will only come once the US House of Representatives also endorses the plan.

The ASX index edged lower immediately after the vote, while the Australian dollar was little changed, trading recently at US79.17 cents this morning.

Any final passage of the US plan has to be agreed on by the US House of Representatives, which shocked the world days ago by rejecting an earlier version of the bail-out proposal.

A House vote may come as early as Friday, US time.

President George Bush, along with Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson and Fed Reserve chairman Ben Bernanke, is anxious for the bail-out to be passed, to avert further corporate failures and stop the losses in global financial markets.

The plan for the US Treasury to buy up billions of dollars in bad debts has run into a popular revolt by US voters who pressured the Congress to vote the bill down just weeks before the presidential and congressional elections.

The bill passed easily through the Senate after it was strongly backed by the leadership of both the Republican and Democratic parties.

The vote was 74 to 25 against.

The package had been enhanced with several sweeteners including extending tax cuts for business and for the renewable energy industry and an increase in the insurance limits on bank deposits from $US100,000 to $US250,000.

This morning's Senate vote comes after the global banking system has been plunged into crisis with a string of corporate failures claiming Bear Sterns, Lehman Brothers, American Insurance Group, Wachovia, and Washington Mutual in the US.