BERLIN - GERMANY'S lower house of parliament Friday voted a 480 billion euro (S$962 billion) state rescue package for the financial sector in a fast-track procedure for it to become law by the end of the day.

Out of a total of 576 parliamentarians, 476 voted in favour, 99 were against and one abstained in the Bundestag, where the package - the biggest rescue plan in post-war Germany - passed its first parliamentary hurdle.

It must now be approved by the upper house, or Bundesrat, comprising provincial legislators from Germany's 16 states.

But despite some grumbling there over who should shoulder the cost of the bailout, the law's passage through the upper house is a shoe-in.

The government on Thursday said it had secured the backing of the most powerful provinces.

'I am pretty sure that we will be able to pass the rescue package with a strong majority,' Mr Roland Koch, premier of the central state of Hesse, had said.

Once the package has been approved by both houses, it will be signed by President Horst Koehler later on Friday so that it can come into effect on Monday.

In the lower house, the ruling conservative CDU/CSU and the Social Democrat SPD parties both voted in favour, as did the liberal FDP. The Greens and the far-left Die Linke party gave voted against.

The CDU head in parliament Volker Kauder told the assembly that the package would help restore confidence in the battered markets.

But the head of the Liberal FDP, Guido Westerwelle, warned that although his party had voted for the bail-out, the move should not be seen as 'a free ticket for everything contained in the package.'

Green parliamentary chief Renate Kuenast meanwhile branded the move as a blank cheque for banks, who could still not be held responsible by taxpayers.

Under the bill, 35 per cent of the rescue package will be paid for by the 16 states, which under the German constitution have a large degree of fiscal and political autonomy.

The plan includes up to 80 billion euros in fresh capital for banks and 400 billion euros in guarantees in order to jumpstart stalled lending between banks.

Berlin has been at pains to stress that the package is not a blank cheque.

In return it will take stakes in the banks and demand influence in company decisions, the payment of dividends and even bankers' salaries.

The bail-out was unveiled at the beginning of the week and Chancellor Angela Merkel insisted it be rushed through parliament at break-neck speed so as to avert further harm to Europe's biggest economy.

'We're laying down the structures for a market economy with a human face for the 21st century,' Dr Merkel said.

'We're taking drastic action so that what we're now experiencing will not happen again.'

Earlier this week, Dr Merkel warned that German economic growth would be temporarily hit.

'We must prepare ourselves for a weakening of growth in Germany. But I'm convinced that the slowdown will not prove a long-lasting one,' she said.

'Germany is strong. But Germany is going to go through a difficult period,' she said. -- AFP