American supermarket chain Kmart was tonight teetering on the edge of bankruptcy as its board met to consider how it can survive.
The household name is second only to Wal-Mart - the world's largest retailer - and virtually every American town has a Kmart outlet.
But tonight the company's board met in Chicago for crisis talks on how to get more credit to keep to ailing firm alive.
If they cannot persuade banks to lend them more cash, the company could be pushed into bankruptcy protection and become the latest corporate casualty of the American recession.
The firm was plunged into crisis as it struggled to keep up with price-cutting by rival WalMart with deep discounts which forced it into the red.
Financial analysts have downgraded its credit status, making it more difficult for the company to get banking overdrafts and credit from suppliers.
The share price has plunged and up to 400 of its 2,100 stores may be shut as part of a rescue plan to avoid bankruptcy.
America has already had its biggest bankruptcy in corporate history this year, with the collapse of energy trading firm Enron.
The Houston-based giant shed thousands of British jobs when it sought Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, which allows it to stop repaying its debts while a rescue plan is put together.
But today Enron's shares were removed from the New York Stock Exchange, signalling that it will not survive in any form, while the chief of the auditing team which was supposed to oversee the corporation was sacked.
He had been accused of ordering thousands of documents to be destroyed when the firm went bankrupt, preventing investigators from finding out what happened to it.
PA