The US Government was this afternoon weighing up its options on how best to support its crisis-hit banks, with sources saying it is close to agreeing an Alistair Darling-style plan to take stakes in troubled companies.

US reports said the Treasury was working out the final details of a plan to inject taxpayers' cash into banks in exchange for ownership stakes.

The reports said the plan was still weeks away from being announced but leaders in Congress could be briefed as early as today.

The Group of Seven leading industrial nations met in Washington today to discuss the UK's £500 billion bank bailout, unveiled this week.

Gordon Brown today called on other nations to follow Britain's lead and plough funds into struggling banks and offer guarantees to get them lending to each other again.

The idea is proving controversial among banks, who are worried a blanket recapitalisation plan will give the impression they are all in trouble, further knocking confidence.

Treasury sources were quoted by the Washington Post's website as saying the government would take non-controlling stakes of between 10% and 15% in the companies that accepted its cash.

Separately, it was reported that Washington was considering a staggering $7 trillion (£4.1 trillion) guarantee of all savers' deposits.

Senior officials in Washington are discussing temporarily backing all US bank deposits if economic conditions worsen as banks buckle under the strain of nervous investors withdrawing cash.

Similar steps have already been taken by several European countries, while the UK Government raised its guarantee on individual bank deposits from £35,000 to £50,000.

“Our European friends have done it, so there will be great pressure to follow,” said William Seidman, former chairman of Federal Deposit Insurance Corp.

There are concerns that if the authorities do not act, customers with large deposits in US banks will move their cash to countries offering more insurance.