The move brings to more than 32 billion dollars the total amount being offered by the oil-rich Gulf nation's monetary authorities to meet the needs of local banks.

"A total of 70 billion dirhams (19 billion dollars) has been transferred o the finance ministry and the department has been tasked with putting an adequate mechanism in place with the central bank to inject these funds into the banking sector," the official WAM news agency said.

"This brings to 120 billion dirhams (32.6 billion dollars) the amount of funds made available to strengthen liquidity in the national banking sector in less than a month," it added.

On September 22, the central bank set up a 13.6-billion-dollar facility to help banks cope with the crisis and said it might make more money available if needed.

The government on Sunday said it will guarantee deposits and savings in local banks to protect depositors in face of the global financial turmoil. The move also covers foreign banks with "significant operations" in the country.

Last week, the UAE central bank also slashed its lending rate to banks to three percent and its benchmark rate by 0.5 percentage points to 1.5 percent in a move to boost market liquidity.

© 2008 Agence France-Presse