ECB's Trichet says Paulson plan must be passed

PARIS (Reuters) - European Central Bank President Jean-Claude Trichet said on Friday the U.S. government's $700 billion (396.6 billion pound) bank bailout plan must be passed and urged EU governments act swiftly to contain the crisis.

The U.S. House of Representatives is expected to debate the plan on Friday and then put it to a vote. The Senate has already passed the bill.

"(U.S. Treasury) Secretary (Henry) Paulson's plan obviously must be passed. It must be. It is necessary," Trichet told Europe 1 radio.

"We must do everything to preserve the unity of the Europeans," he said.

Trichet will attend a meeting in Paris on Saturday with the leaders of Italy, France, Britain and Germany to discuss the EU response to the crisis ahead of a full meeting of G8 leaders later in the year.

"I called on the governments to be as reactive as possible," he said.

ECB Executive Board Member Lorenzo Bini Smaghi said in a newspaper article governments should intervene immediately and substantially in case of market tensions in the banking sector.

He also said it was better for governments to buy direct stakes in troubled banks rather than adopt a U.S.-style rescue package.

"It is not right to use taxpayers' money to save banks which made chunky profits in the past," he wrote. "So public intervention should not mirror rebuying junk assets of banks like in the initial U.S. model."