LONDON (Reuters) - Europe joined Asia's panic selling in stocks on Friday, knocking the benchmark world equity index to a 5-year trough, while the low-yielding yen jumped as fears grew that efforts by policymakers are insufficient to contain the global financial crisis.


Equity trading in Russia, Iceland, Romania, Ukraine and Indonesia has been halted while nearly half of Milan stocks are suspended for excessive losses, just hours before finance chiefs from Group of Seven rich nations meet in Washington.

Oct. 10 (Bloomberg) -- Finance ministers and central bankers from the Group of Seven nations meet today facing a breakdown in investor confidence in their ability to end the credit freeze endangering the global economy.

Threatened by the worst economic outlook in a quarter century, officials arrived in Washington still without the broad- based strategy that investors were seeking, raising the risk of further turmoil if their remedies disappoint. Among the options being considered: a proposal by U.K. Chancellor Alistair Darling for nations to guarantee lending between banks, a suggestion that U.S. Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson hasn't ruled out.

Unprecedented interest-rate cuts and bank bailouts failed to quell panic in markets, leaving policy makers under pressure to pull even more policy levers. The Dow Jones Industrial Average yesterday plunged below 9,000 for the first time since 2003 and credit markets remained frozen.

``Global policy makers have their backs against the wall -- they have nowhere to run, nowhere to hide,'' said Marco Annunziata, chief economist at Unicredit MIB in London. ``Do not underestimate how hard they are going to fight back now.''