A task force will submit the plan after auditing its finances and assessing its management and operations in the first half, said Jiao Jinpu, deputy head of the research department at People's Bank of China, in a live Web broadcast. A bailout of ABC, burdened with US$99 billion of dud loans, may cost the state as much as US$140 billion to meet the central bank's 8 percent minimum capital adequacy requirement, Standard & Poor's estimates. Chinese government decided to keep the bank whole rather than break it up, citing a need to preserve financial services for farmers who use its 31,000 branches.

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