Governments add to rescue plans

By Brian Moss

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Governments strung together lifelines to rescue their battered economies on Tuesday as the worldwide financial crisis that has cost trillions of dollars and claimed millions of jobs ground on.

Britain announced $3.25 billion (2.29 billion pounds) of loan guarantees to its automakers, Japan pledged $16.7 billion to the small- and medium-sized companies at the heart of its economy and Canada's government proposed a two-year, $32 billion stimulus package, its hold on power requiring opposition support for the plan.

U.S. President Barack Obama also went to opposition lawmakers to gain support for his $825 billion stimulus proposal.

But despite polls showing optimism over the new president's inauguration, U.S. consumer confidence fell to a record low in January, The Conference Board said, as layoffs grew and the housing market continued to struggle.

U.S. home prices plunged a record 18.2 percent in November from a year earlier, according to an index from Standard & Poor's.

"Consumers remain quite pessimistic about the state of the economy," said Lynn Franco, director of The Conference Board Research Centre. "Until we begin to see considerable improvements in the expectations index, we can't say the worst of times are behind us."

In Germany, however, corporate sentiment improved in December for the first time in eight months, defying fears it would dip to a new post-reunification low for January.

Oil fell 9 percent after the bleak U.S. economic data raised concerns over demand.