Pakistan said on Friday it was seeking a $4bn international assistance package that would have World Bank financial support as its cornerstone.

Pakistan is one of Asia’s most vulnerable economies. The country’s new democratic government is seeking support from the US, China, Saudi Arabia and multilateral lenders to help it fill a financing gap of $10bn in the current year and fend off a balance of payments crisis. The rupee has crashed to new lows and foreign currency reserves are dwindling fast against the backdrop of the global financial crisis that has wreaked havoc on the region’s stock markets.