WRAPUP 1-US housing bill clears hurdle, Saturday vote seen

* U.S. Senate set to approve housing rescue on Saturday

* Fannie, Freddie to get federal financial backstop

* $300 billion mortgage-rescue fund to be created

By Patrick Rucker

WASHINGTON, July 25 (Reuters) - A sweeping bill to aid the battered U.S. housing market and provide an emergency backstop for the mortgage finance system cleared a procedural hurdle in the Senate on Friday, setting it up for a Saturday vote.

Under the legislation, Fannie Mae (FNM.N: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) and Freddie Mac (FRE.N: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz), the two biggest sources of U.S. home finance, can count on billions of dollars in fresh loans from the Treasury should they stumble and could even see the government buying their stock.

Fears the two mortgage finance pillars could collapse rattled global markets earlier this month and led the Bush administration to call for emergency measures to bolster investor confidence. The Senate is expected to pass the bill on Saturday and the White House has said President George W. Bush will sign it.

The two government-chartered companies own or guarantee nearly half of the $12 trillion in outstanding U.S. mortgage debt and have lost billions of dollars on bad home loan. If they were to run into serious difficulty, it could wreak havoc with global credit markets and choke off what little funding remains for an already weak U.S. housing sector.

June data on Friday from Freddie Mac showed its ability to support the troubled U.S. housing market is intact, as it bought billions of dollars in mortgages. But late payments on bonds Freddie Mac owns or guarantees kept climbing, threatening to eat into its capital and inhibit its buying power