The US Senate has passed a revised bailout bill to rescue Wall Street banks in an attempt to stave off economic disaster.
The vote count was 74 in favour, 25 against.
To become law, the bill must now pass the House of Representatives in a separate vote.
World stock markets tumbled earlier this week after Congress initially rejected the US$700 billion rescue package, shocking legislators into a repeat vote.
US President George W Bush urged members to promptly approve the package to "stabilise" volatile markets as experts warned that the credit crunch was beginning to seriously harm day-to-day running of the economy.
"The Senate's going to take this bill up tonight, I'm hopeful they'll pass it, and then the House will have a chance to vote on it Friday morning," Bush said before the vote.
"The bill's different, it's been improved, and I'm confident it'll pass."
Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama and his Republican rival John McCain returned to Washington from the campaign trail in a bid to bolster the bill in the dramatic Senate vote.
Obama invoked former president Franklin D. Roosevelt, who was credited with restoring confidence during the Great Depression of the 1930s partly with the power of his words, calling on today's Americans to write their own destiny.
"Today we cannot fail, we cannot fail, not now, not tomorrow, not next year," Obama said in the Senate chamber.
The measure raises the ceiling on federal insurance for bank deposits from 100,000 dollars to 250,000 dollars, a move aimed at curbing a run on bank deposits by portfolio managers and businesses.
It retains most facets of the original plan which gives Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson the power to buy up tainted mortgage-related assets in troubled banks and includes restrictions on "golden parachute" payoffs for executives.
The proposal, however, has run into fierce grass-roots resistance by voters who see it as a reward for imprudent Wall Street money spinners, raising doubts about its passage.
Analysts at BNP Paribas warned that any further delay in adoption by the US Congress of a bailout plan could "provide 'opportunities' for bankruptcies" both in the United States and Europe.
They described the current liquidity situation as "the worst the markets have seen in decades."
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