President Clinton says the United States supports the idea of giving extra funds to Russia to help ease its financial burdens.

A White House statement said the United States endorsed conditional financial support for Russia from international lending agencies like the World Bank and the IMF.

The statement did not say how much extra funding might be made available to Russia or when.

The Russian prime minister, Sergey Kiryenko, said on Sunday that he believed the worst financial problems were now over.

But he predicted there would be opposition to his new austerity programme, which aims to cut government spending and boost revenues from tax collection.