The White House pleaded Friday for patience with a mammoth economic bailout, as a wave of panic selling drove a global share price meltdown on fears of a painful worldwide recession.

"What I would ask is that Americans be a little bit patient with this program," spokeswoman Dana Perino said, referring to plans to inject up to 700 billion dollars to rescue battered financial institutions.

"We do think it is big enough to solve this big problem. It's just going to take us a little while to get through it," she said, noting that key staff to implement the package were still being hired.

"We're not talking months. We're talking just a few weeks for us to be able to hire the contractors. There are so many people that have to be hired," she said. "We have to make sure that we're getting the right people."

But even after the bailout money starts flowing "we make no guarantees about what's going to happen in the stock market going forward," said Perino.

And asked what other steps the United States could take with its allies, Perino replied: "I don't have anything new to announce to you. We're trying to implement the program that we have."