Asian stock markets suffered a fresh mauling with Tokyo plunging to a four-year low on growing doubts about whether a Wall Street bailout package can stem the global financial crisis.

And the Australian share market travelled along, closing at its lowest level in almost three years, falling over three per cent.

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Market experts say investors are spooked by signs of escalating problems in Europe, after Germany's fourth biggest bank has had to be rescued over the weekend.

Tokyo's Nikkei-225 index is down 4.25 per cent, and Seoul also tumbled 4.3 per cent, while Hong Kong and Shanghai are also down.

Russian stocks plunge

Russia also took a major hit today, with its two main markets, the RTS and MICEX, plunging at the start of trading between seven-and-a-half and almost ten per cent.

Meanwhile, European stock markets plummeted in early trading, briefly losing around five percent amid increased fears about the global financial crisis, dealers say.

At 0745 GMT, London's FTSE 100 showed a loss of 3.97 percent, Frankfurt's DAX 30 was down 4.33 percent and the Paris CAC 40 was suffering a slump of 4.25 percent.

"The Fed's bailout plan may have been passed on Friday but so far there's been no real reaction in credit markets and because of this the natural assumption is going to be that the measures won't work, even if such a call is rather premature," CMC Markets dealer Matt Buckland says.

Investors dumped shares after US stock markets had fallen sharply on Friday, despite US congressional approval of a 700-billion-dollar bank bailout.

Bailout hasn't eased fears

Dealers say the declines reflected worries that the plan would not be a panacea for the broad economic and banking woes in the United States.

Underscoring the worsening conditions in the world's largest economy, 159,000 US jobs were lost in September, according to government figures.

"The approval of the financial rescue plan failed to bolster market confidence. Pessimism towards the global economy is running deeper," says Young Wang, an analyst at Yuanta Securities Investment Consulting in Taipei, where stocks ended down 4.1 percent at a four-year low.

As the US-born financial crisis takes a stronger grip in Europe, the German government agreed an emergency rescue package of 50 billion euros, or 68 billion dollars, for Hypo Real Estate, late Sunday before markets opened in Asia.

It also announced an unlimited guarantee for personal savings deposits.

Fortis taken over

France's BNP Paribas meanwhile announced Sunday that it was taking control of the operations of ailing financial group Fortis in Belgium and Luxembourg.

The leaders of France, Germany, Italy and Britain vowed over the weekend to protect fragile banks but did not discuss a European financial rescue package.

"Financial stocks are certainly going to be under pressure again with German mortgage lender Hypo Real Estate being the latest to receive state aid but the overall impact is going to cross all sectors with the prospect of slowing demand weighing on all the (company) heavyweights," added Buckland.

Stocks also plunged across the Nordic region, with Oslo dropping almost 7.0 percent, Stockholm down 4.62 percent and Helsinki shedding 4.88 percent.

The Amsterdam stock exchange had opened 4.6 percent lower, after Friday's announcement that the government was nationalising the Dutch-based assets of embattled banking group Fortis.