Turkey and the International Monetary Fund failed to break an impasse over a loan deal on Thursday and Russian state bank VEB said struggling companies had asked it for $90 billion in aid.
Flagging further trouble for the global economy, India's trade minister warned of a growing threat of protectionism as a response to the worst global economic crisis in 80 years.
Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan said he had long discussions with IMF First Deputy Managing Director John Lipsky on Wednesday on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum in this Swiss ski resort.
Erdogan cast doubt on prospects for a swift loan deal and said the Fund had raised two new issues, but gave no details.
"If we reach an agreement with the IMF for 2009 it will make an easier time of it and if we do not reach an agreement it is not the end of the world," he told reporters.
Official talks were suspended on Monday for 10 days in an attempt to clear remaining obstacles to a stand-by deal, expected at around $25 billion to help the Turkey weather the global financial crisis.
The crisis has prompted billions of dollars to be spent on bank bailouts and economic stimulus packages. It has also led the IMF to prop up a number of particularly hard-hit countries.
Policymakers are working behind the scenes in Davos on ways to fix the financial system, ahead of a summit of the G20 group of big and emerging countries in April and a G8 summit in July.
JPMorgan chief Jaime Dimon acknowledged bankers had done "some really stupid things" in the crisis, which stemmed from a collapse in the U.S. housing market and led to a credit freeze, but also criticised policymakers and regulators.
"I haven't yet seen people get all the right people in a room, close the damn door and come out with a solution," he said.
NO RUSSIAN BLANK CHEQUES
Russian markets have been among the hardest hit as foreign investors have fled.
Russian companies have made bids for about $90 billion in help from state corporation VEB to restructure foreign debts, VEB chairman Vladimir Dmitriev told reporters in Davos.
The size of the bids gives an indication of the seriousness of the situation in Russia, which the government forecasts will contract in 2009 for the first time in more than a decade.
Russia's second-largest bank, VTB, may issue preference shares later this year as part of a 200 billion rouble ($6.02 billion) state recapitalisation, VTB Chief Executive Andrei Kostin told Reuters.
But although Russia is discussing ways to recapitalise major banks, First Deputy Prime Minister Igor Shuvalov said Moscow would not write a blank cheque to save top businessmen and the state expected something in return for helping bail them out.
PROTECTIONIST THREAT
India's trade minister, Kamal Nath, said the economic crisis could fuel protectionism to safeguard national industries and jobs. Such protectionism, if it led to tit-for-tat retaliation, would intensify the downturn, as happened in the 1930s Great Depression.
"We do fear this because one must recognise that at the heart of globalisation lies global competitiveness, and if governments are going to protect their non-competitive production facilities it's not going to be fair trade," Nath told Reuters.
"If there are protectionist measures India will be compelled to also take commensurate measures against those countries which will be good for no one."
Foreign policy and global security was high on Thursday's agenda in this snow-capped mountain town. Iran's foreign minister and the head of the U.N. nuclear agency, Mohamed ElBaradei, were present. Israeli and Arab leaders also attended.
Britain's Guardian newspaper reported that U.S. officials were drafting a letter to Iran from President Barack Obama aimed at unfreezing U.S.-Iranian relations and opening the way to direct talks.
The U.S. State Department has been working on drafts of the letter since Obama was elected in November, the report said. It was a response to a letter of congratulations sent by Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad after Obama's poll victory.
