Darling sets 200 billion stg bank rescue package

British Finance Minister Alistair Darling said on Wednesday the government expected taxpayers' money being used for a huge bank rescue package to be repaid after three years.

"The money will be in order of about 200 billion pounds," ($350 billion) Darling told BBC radio. "That is effectively lent into the banking system and we'll get that money back and there's a fee charge for doing that.

"This is being lent into the whole system and we'll get that money back … at the end of the three-year period."

Darling said the treasury could not force banks to lend to each other more freely to ease the logjam in the system, but added: "What you can do is reduce the fear factor. That is what is stopping banks lending on a longer-term basis."