Alistair Darling will today try to persuade his EU and US counterparts to adopt a similar approach to Britain's radical part-nationalisation bank plan to unblock their own financial systems.

Last night, it appeared that the American government had moved closer to doing just that - taking stakes in US banks ahead of a G7 meeting of leading economic powers in Washington.

Sources close to the US Treasury said the department plans to start directly injecting capital into the nation's banks by the end of the month.

It would be the latest step to combat the widening financial crisis in which major economies have rescued banks, injected massive amounts of liquidity into markets, agreed to take toxic debt off the books of financial institutions and slashed interest rates.

A recapitalisation plan was an option included in the $700bn (£406bn) rescue plan approved last week in which the US government will buy bad loans from financial institutions in the hope that it will jump-start lending.

Yesterday, Gordon Brown, who boasted that his £500bn "stability and restructuring programme" was "leading the world", made clear it was now being examined by other countries. "We've led the world yesterday by saying we will help rebuild the banking system. Round the world now, other countries are looking at what we are doing."

Over the next two days, the Chancellor will be in Washington not only for today's G7 finance ministers' meeting but also for discussions with the International Monetary Fund and World Bank tomorrow.

UK ministers are also pushing for an international early-warning system to alert governments in good time to global economic shocks.

Next week, Mr Darling and Mr Brown will be in Brussels for an EU summit and there is a desire for a meeting of the G8, possibly next month, to discuss the economic crisis.

A number of other countries are thought to be eyeing Britain's £500bn three-part rescue plan - recapitalising the banks, underwriting bank loans and providing short-term funds.

Nicolas Sarkozy, the French President, has been briefed on it by British officials in Paris. Spain has already announced it will spend almost £40bn in buying up bank assets while Italy has suggested its own banks might need more capital. Russia has said it will provide five-year loans to banks, costing £20bn.

Earlier this week, Henry Paulson, the US Treasury Secretary was asked directly whether he would try something like the British plan, to which he replied: "We've emphasised the purchase of liquid assets but we have a broad range of authorities and I'm confident we have the authorities we need to work with going forward."