WASHINGTON (Bloomberg) — US Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson said last night the US will buy equity "as soon as we can" in banks and other financial institutions to restore market stability and revive economic growth.

The Treasury is "working to develop a standardised programme that is open to a broad array of financial institutions," Paulson said at a press conference after a meeting in Washington of finance ministers and central bankers from Group of Seven countries.

The injection of equity is part of efforts to sustain banks and other financial institutions through the worst credit crisis in seven decades, including takeovers by Treasury of American International Group Inc. and Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the largest US mortgage finance companies.

"We're going to do it as soon as we can do it and do it properly and do it effectively and right," Paulson said. "Trust me, we are not wasting time; people are working around the clock to deal with this."

Under the equity purchase programme, the Treasury would not be involved in bank management, Paulson said. Equity purchases would take place alongside Treasury's coming program of "broad" mortgage asset purchases, he said.

"Such a programme would be designed to encourage the raising of new private capital to complement public capital," Paulson said.

"Any equity the government purchases through a broadly available equity programme would be on a non-voting basis, except with respect to the market-standard terms to protect our rights as investors," he said.

The G-7 nations are committed to "an aggressive action plan" to expand liquidity and stem a credit crisis threatening global economic growth, Paulson said in the statement.

The G-7 will "provide liquidity to markets, strengthen financial institutions, protect savers and enforce investor protections" under a "coherent framework". Policy makers will pursue "robust international partnership and cooperation."

The Dow Jones Industrial Average posted its biggest weekly drop in the history of the 30-stock average as officials from the US, Japan, Germany, UK, France, Canada and Italy met for the first time since the financial crisis spread last month.