WASHINGTON AP – Federal regulators are likely to offer a limited emergency extension of a rescue program that guarantees hundreds of billions of dollars in U.S. banks’ debt.

The board of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. is expected to vote to provide the six-month extension in some cases of the temporary program, which ends Oct 31. Established a year ago at the height of the financial crisis, the program was intended to help thaw the freeze in bank-to-bank lending.