(Corrects 8th par to say "shortly" not "before Christmas")
* EU seeking ways to get banks lending
* Reserve Bank of Australia cuts rates by full point
* Bank of Japan seeks to help cash-strapped companies
* Asia stocks tumble but Europe perks up
By Jan Strupczewski
BRUSSELS, Dec 2 (Reuters) - European ministers sought to push lending banks back into action, Japan moved to help its cash-strapped companies, and global markets endured mixed fortunes as the financial crisis swirled onwards on Tuesday.
The European Commission promised measures to get state-aided banks to start lending to the real economy but EU finance ministers squabbled over plans to counter the downturn.
Across the globe, Australia slashed interest rates and others countries are expected to follow this week.
With the United States now officially in recession, Asian equities tumbled. But European shares and U.S. stock futures rallied in a volatile session, pointing to a firmer start on Wall Street.
"What you are likely to see is a snap-back rally after yesterday's big sell-off," said Andre Bakhos, president of Princeton Financial Group in Princeton, New Jersey.
A positive trading update from Tesco, Britain's top retailer, raised expectations some retailers could withstand a consumer downturn, while hopes for a U.S. auto industry bailout boosted General Motors shares before the Wall Street bell.
On the Asian corporate front, Toyota Motor Corp said it would chop management bonuses by 10 percent as it cuts back production in the face of collapsing demand. In Brussels, EU Competition Commissioner Neelie Kroes, facing pressure from member states to approve state aid to ailing banks, said the EU executive would approve new rules shortly.
Kroes said after meeting EU finance ministers that the Commission expected banks that received state aid to give commitments to lend to the real economy.
Finance ministers from all 27 EU nations had gathered in Brussels to discuss a proposal for governments to spend an extra 1.2 percent of GDP from their budgets to boost investment and consumer demand. German Finance Minister Peer Steinbrueck said Berlin, Paris and other EU capitals were unhappy with the Commission approach to vetting state aid to banks.
The Commission said proposed German assistance for Commerzbank did not meet EU rules on state aid.
The ministers agreed to increase the capital of the European Investment Bank (EIB), the EU's lending arm, by 67 billion euros ($84.7 billion), the EIB's president said.
THE PAIN IN SPAIN
Spain took a blow when official figures showed the number of Spaniards out of work rising by 171,243, or 6 percent, in November to a total unemployed of nearly 3 million.
Australia's Reserve Bank cited the perilous state of the world economy when it cut the benchmark cash rate by a full percentage point to 4.25 percent.
Britain, the euro zone and New Zealand will almost certainly cut interest rates later this week. In addition to more rate cuts, the U.S. Federal Reserve is weighing other responses with its benchmark rate nearing zero.
The Bank of Japan kept its key rate at 0.30 percent an emergency meeting to deal with a cash squeeze on Japanese companies, which face slumping export markets.
It unveiled 3 trillion yen ($32 billion) in new measures help corporate funding. The BOJ will accept a wider range of corporate debt as collateral and launch a new scheme to make it easier for banks to make loans to companies.
The crisis, triggered by U.S. mortgage defaults that destroyed banks from Wall Street to Iceland, has piled pressure on policymakers to ramp up their response, including sweeping interest rate cuts by the major central banks.
Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke said on Monday further cuts in the U.S. benchmark rate below 1 percent were feasible.
In Asian markets, Japan's Nikkei average tumbled 6.4 percent as the yen surged. Hong Kong's Hang Seng index lost 5 percent.
"Investors knew the economy was bad, but a series of economic indicators showed it had deteriorated far more than expected," said Soichiro Monji, a chief strategist at Daiwa SB Investments. "It's become clear that it's not just the United States but everyone."
But in Europe, shares turned positive. The FTSEurofirst 300 index of leading European shares rose 0.7 percent, erasing earlier losses. Tesco rose more than 9 percent.
Euro zone producer prices fell more than expected month-on-month in October, data showed, registering 0.8 percent drop against September for annual rise of 6.3 percent and underlining the scope for a deep ECB interest rate cut.
"The message for the ECB is clearly: don't worry about inflation, cut now, and a lot. I would say 75 basis points, it's a minimum," Bank of America economist Holger Schmieding said.
BANKERS' BLUES
Britain's construction sector shrank last month at its fastest pace in more than a decade, a survey showed on Tuesday, building pressure on the Bank of England to cut rates by at least another percentage point on Thursday.
The pain also reached deeper into the workplaces of big financial players.
Switzerland's Credit Suisse AG and Britain's HSBC are axing hundreds of jobs as the worst financial crisis since the 1930s continues to bite.
Credit Suisse will shed 650 jobs and HSBC, Europe's biggest bank, said it was cutting 500. Around 90,000 jobs have been axed at major global banks since September.
The Wall Street Journal reported Goldman Sachs was likely to report a net loss of as much as $2 billion for the fourth quarter. (Additional reporting by Reuters bureaus worldwide; Writing by Angus MacSwan; editing by Mike Peacock)