Credit crisis contagion continued to spread around the world today as the Belgian and French governments backed a second bailout in two days and the Indian central bank moved to back a major lender.

French President Nicolas Sarkozy ended a crisis meeting with the country's top bankers and insurers, promising new measures to combat the financial crisis by the end of the week.

Immediately Dexia, the Franco-Belgian bank with 5.5 million customers, will receive an injection of €6.4 billion (£5.1 billion) of new capital from the governments of Belgium, France and Luxembourg.

Dexia's chairman Pierre Richard and chief executive Axel Miller resigned today.

A big provider of finance to local authorities across the Continent, Dexia lost millions on its venture into municipal bond insurance in the US.

Its shares fell yesterday more than 30% after rival Fortis was bailed out.

Royal Bank of Scotland was forced to issue a statement that the Fortis bailout would not have any effect on its interests in ABN Amro.

The Belgian government is pumping €3 billion into Dexia while the French, through their state-owned CDC, will inject another €3 billion. Luxembourg will add €376 million.

Central bank Governor Christian Noyer tried to reassure savers and investors. "The fact is that the state is saying that there is a problem. I am behind you.

"I can guarantee that nobody should be afraid, nobody should worry about their savings or their deposits, nobody should avoid the banks.

"They are solid, they are safe and I, the state, am their guarantor. That's fundamental," Noyer declared.

In India, the country's second-largest bank Icici angrily denied rumours in the stock market about its financial strength, calling them "baseless and malicious".

The central bank in India said it had arranged to provide Icici with "adequate cash" but said it believed the bank "had sufficient liquidity to meet the requirements of depositors".

Icici, which has branches in the UK, said its foreign operations were well capitalised.