Paris - The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) is preparing a plan to aid banks in central and eastern Europe that could involve as much as 350 million euros (444 million euros) per financial institution, EBRD head Thomas Mirow was on Friday quoted as saying.

"If you go by the worst-case scenario," the banks need 150 million euros for recapitalization and 200 million euros for refinancing, Mirow said in an interview published Friday in the French daily Le Figaro.

Mirow said that the need for the aid was urgent.

"It's a question of weeks. Our plan must be implemented as quickly as possible or there will be a credit crunch in eastern Europe, that is, insufficient financing for enterprises, households and foreign trade," he said.

A number of eastern European banks could fail, Mirow said. "In the current crisis, numerous banks need state support via national rescue plans as well as our aid."

The EBRD head warned that, because 10 or 12 western European banks are deeply involved in central and eastern Europe, "if their branch banks fail in the east it will almost certainly have an impact on the euro zone."

The countries that are most vulnerable to the weakness of the eastern European banking system are France, Greece, Italy, Austria, Sweden and Germany, Mirow said.