Bailout meeting ends -- no deal

WASHINGTON, Sept. 25 (UPI) -- A marathon session at the White House ended Thursday night with no agreement on legislation to bail out U.S. financial markets, officials said.

The meeting featured blunt language by President George W. Bush about the urgency of repairing credit markets, The New York Times reported, citing a source who was in the room.

"If money isn't loosened up, this sucker could go down," Bush said as participants haggled over the proposed $700 billion bailout package.

After the meeting, the Times reported, Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson pleaded with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., not to "blow it up" by refusing to support the package but Pelosi told Paulson, "It's not me blowing this up, it's the Republicans."

Paulson answered: "I know. I know."

The meeting began cordially but apparently had some contentious moments when House Republican leadership brought up an alternate plan, Sen. Christopher Dodd, D-Conn., Senate Banking Committee chairman said. House Republicans have been vocal in their opposition to proposed stabilization effort.

"We've been spending a lot of time trying to come up with a rescue plan for our economy," Dodd said. "It took us away from the work we're trying to do today."

Earlier in the day, Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama told CNN he thought the negotiations would produce a deal.

Obama said he was under the impression that all parties agreed to a set of principles that would govern the bailout "conceptually," but "something happened" between Thursday morning's announcement about fundamental agreement to principles and the White House meeting.

Sen. Richard Shelby, R-Ala., ranking minority member on the Banking Committee, said, "I can tell you, I don't believe we have an agreement."