New rescue effort called key to resuming lending

Financial markets roared ahead Monday as investors reacted with near-euphoria to the Obama administration's new trillion-dollar plan to stabilize banks by relieving them of their troubled assets and risky loans.

But even as markets exulted, conflicting interests among participants in the program — banks, investors and taxpayers — were emerging, leaving in doubt the fate of a program meant to revive bank lending and in turn reinvigorate the overall economy.

Some banks are resisting government pressure to sell assets at prices they believe to be too low. And despite the risk of an outcry from Congress, the Treasury this weekend made the program more attractive to private investors, according to industry and some government officials. Treasury officials said the last-minute changes were not intended to sweeten the deal.

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