WASHINGTON ? The International Monetary Fund on Wednesday approved emergency short-term financing to help emerging market economies weather a global credit crisis.

"Exceptional times call for an exceptional response," said IMF managing director Dominique Strauss-Kahn. "The IMF will respond to this crisis with all the necessary financing," he said in a statement announcing the action.

The package will be available to a group of pre-approved countries with well-run economies that will be able to draw up to five times their IMF quota, which broadly determines how much a member country can borrow from the fund.

"We are prepared to use our own resources and to work with others to generate additional resources to make sure that countries have the money they need to restore confidence and maintain stability," Strauss-Khan said.

He declined to name any candidates for the new facility.

IMF First Deputy Managing Director John Lipsky said, "We fully expect it to be used."

The US Federal Reserve separately announced that it had set up temporary currency swap lines with Brazil, Mexico, South Korea and Singapore to provide them with dollar liquidity of up to $30 billion each.

A number of developing countries have seen their access to credit dry up as the international capital markets froze in fear after the collapse US investment bank Lehman Brothers last month under massive US home loan losses.

"The ongoing turmoil in global capital markets has led to significant liquidity difficulties for some emerging market countries, even those that have maintained sound macroeconomic frameworks," Strauss-Kahn said.

The new facility provides finance to countries that don't need to adopt the standard IMF economic adjustment program, and are suffering from short-term liquidity pressures through no fault of their own.

"This new facility addresses that gap in the Fund's toolkit of financial support," he said.