Stocks continued to tumble across Asia Friday on the back of heavy losses on Wall Street and amid concern over the fate of the multi-billion-dollar bailout deal for the US financial system.

The House of Representatives in Washington was set to vote later in the day on a revised plan to spend 700 billion dollars on a rescue package that the government hopes will ease pressure on the economy.

Despite being resoundingly passed by the Senate on Wednesday night, investors are still worried that the House will reject it -- as it did on Monday, sending world markets into a tailspin.

With Seoul and Shanghai closed for public holidays, most of Asia's major bourses were down. Tokyo slid two percent at close, Hong Kong was down 2.1 percent at noon and Sydney finished 1.4 percent lower, while Singapore was off by 2.3 percent.

Taipei shed clawed back earlier losses to post a 0.7 percent gain on bargain-hunting.

US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi moved to boost confidence that the bailout bill would get the green light, but there were lingering doubts about its eventual impact.

"Despite the fact that it passed overwhelmingly in the Senate, its passage isn't guaranteed in the House," said John Wilson, equity strategist at Morgan Keegan in the United States.

"I would expect the financial markets to breathe a sigh of relief when the (the bill) passes, but I don't expect the clouds to part and a host of angels to appear in the heavens singing hallelujahs."

Dealers on Friday were taking their cue from Wall Street, where the Dow Jones Industrial Average sank 3.22 percent to a three-year low on Thursday.

That came days after its biggest single-day points loss on record following the House's defeat of the first bailout plan.

Market sentiment was also weak due to bad news about the US economy, said Kazuhiro Takahashi, equities chief at Daiwa Securities SMBC in Tokyo.

"Even if the House passes the bill, we cannot expect markets to recover given the weak economy," said Takahashi.

Sentiment was also dented by wider economic woes as a jump in weekly US jobless claims to 497,000 highlighted ongoing fears.

A separate US report showed a 4.0 percent drop in August factory orders.

In a bid to ease pressure on the Nikkei, the Bank of Japan pumped 800 billion yen (7.6 billion dollars) into the market, the 13th straight business day it has done so.

But that was not enough to stop the Tokyo index plunging to a three-year low.

Oil prices also fell as traders continued to fret about the global economy and its impact on energy demand.

In afternoon trade New York's main contract, light sweet crude for November delivery, was 85 cents lower at 93.12 dollars a barrel, after sliding 4.56 dollars to 93.97 dollars at the close of floor trading on Thursday at the New York Mercantile Exchange.

Brent North Sea crude for November dropped 69 cents to 89.87 dollars after a fall of 4.77 dollars to settle at 90.56 dollars Thursday in London.

Unease was evident in markets around the world, with London's FTSE 100 index falling 1.80 percent on Thursday and the Paris CAC 40 losing 2.25 percent. In Frankfurt, the DAX was off 2.51 percent.

The world's indexes have been battered in recent weeks following the collapse of Wall Street titan Lehman Brothers, the buyout of Merrill Lynch and the government bailout of insurer American International Group.