Iceland’s Prime Minister has been in contact with his Nordic counterparts ‘for some time now’, according to Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen, and Nordic help may be on the way to the beleaguered Icelanders.

The prime minister’s comments came as the benchmark Icelandic index, which has been closed for business for some days, reopened and plummeted a full 76 percent. Trade in Iceland’s three largest banks, which have been taken over by the state, remain suspended.

“There is a good tradition for Nordic solidarity. There have been talks for some time between Iceland and the Nordic countries,” Anders Fogh Rasmussen said today.

Not just moral support
“The Icelandic prime minister has been in contact with all of us and we want to help our Nordic colleague,” he added but would not disclose how Nordic help could be disbursed.

“I am not prepared now to say what the discussions have been about,” he said, but when asked if the Nordic Investment Bank was involved, or whether help would be moral support or economic support, the Prime Minister said: “Moral support is not enough, it will need economic support too.”