The White House on Wednesday defended its takeover of troubled insurance giant American International Group, saying the action protected the economy from further harm.

"You have a government that is willing to lead, act where appropriate, and govern to make sure that we limit broader financial harm to the economy," White House spokeswoman Dana Perino said.

Invoking extraordinary powers granted after the 1929 stock market crash, the U.S. government seized control of the nation's largest insurance company by providing an 85 billion dollar emergency loan on Tuesday.

Treasury and Federal Reserve chiefs and other government economic advisors had determined "some of these companies were so big that to allow them to fail would have caused even greater harmand damage to the economy," said Perino.

"We remain concerned about other companies and that's why the secretary of the Treasury continues to work with the team to see if we can stem any other losses," she said.

She did not rule out future bailouts of troubled financial institutions.

About the economy, Perino said that "we have a very mixed picture right now."

But according to top economic officials, the economy has the strength to "deal with these shocks," she said.

(Xinhua News Agency September 18, 2008)