Carl Hulse and Robert Pear contributed reporting.

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The U.S. House of Representatives gave final approval Friday to the $700 billion bailout for the financial system, reversing course to authorize what may be the most expensive U.S. government intervention in history.

The vote was 263 to 171, with a number of Democrats and Republicans switching sides to give the rescue package a majority. More Republicans continued to oppose the measure than support it, however.

The Senate approved the plan Wednesday night by 74 to 25, after adding a portfolio of popular tax provisions. The bill now heads to President George W. Bush, who has promised to sign it.

Financial markets had a positive but hardly exuberant response to the House action and the prospect that the Federal Reserve would also move to cut interest rates to help the ailing economy. Just after the bill was approved, the Dow Jones industrial average was up about 115 points.

The move to rescue the financial industry came as the United States was weighed down by another round of bleak economic data, including a report showing 159,000 jobs were lost in September. It is the last jobs report to be issued before the Nov. 4 election. (Page 18)

After the surprise defeat of the bailout package Monday, congressional leaders took no chances Friday. Democrats had said they would not bring the bill back to the floor unless they were certain of victory.

Even before the vote, however, there was evidence that the prospect of the rescue package was encouraging further consolidation in the banking industry. On Friday, Wells Fargo, a big bank concentrated in the western United States, announced that it would buy another bank, Wachovia, without a government guarantee, grabbing it away from Citigroup, which said it might try to block the deal. (Page 15)

Policy makers and investors worldwide were closely watching the outcome of the vote because they believed the measure was critical to prevent a further weakening of the U.S. and global economy. Leaders of some of the largest countries in Europe planned to meet Saturday to discuss dealing with the credit crisis there.

The revolt this week by the House rank and file was quelled both by fears of a global economic meltdown and by old-fashioned political inducements added by the Senate to sweeten the deal.

Many lawmakers who changed sides said they had agonized over the decision amid a torrent of telephone calls and e-mail messages from voters, and several referred to a provision added by the Senate increasing the amount of bank savings insured by the federal government to $250,000 per account from $100,000.