FACTBOX: Icelandic banks in crisis, looking to Russia

(Reuters) - Iceland's banking system is in crisis, ravaged by a global financial crisis that has pushed the country toward what Prime Minister Geir Haarde called the threat of "national bankruptcy."

Reykjavik announced on Tuesday that Russia had agreed to provide Iceland with a 4 billion euro loan to strengthen foreign reserves and support the Icelandic crown, which fell dramatically on Monday. Russia said, however, that no decision on the loan had been made.T

Here are some key facts about Iceland:

* THE FINANCIAL CRISIS:

-- Iceland's market authority said on Tuesday it would take control of Landsbanki, the island's second largest bank by value.

-- On Monday the crown had dropped as much as 30 percent against the euro. The government announced sweeping powers over banks to defuse the crisis, but ratings agency Standard & Poor's cut the country's ratings.

-- The small country's financial stature had swelled in recent years as its banks expanded rapidly overseas. Investors took large positions in its high-yielding currency and foreign firms and individuals poured money into local projects.

* THE COUNTRY - SOME DETAILS:

CAPITAL - Reykjavik

POPULATION - 304,000 (2008 estimates)

ETHNICITY - Some 96 percent of Icelanders are descendants of Norwegian, Scottish and Irish immigrants.

RELIGION - 92 percent of Icelanders are Lutheran Protestants. There are small minorities of other Protestants and Roman Catholics.

LANGUAGE - Modern Icelandic is closely related to Old Norse, the language of the original Viking settlers.

ECONOMY - Before World War Two, Iceland was a relatively poor country. After the war, the economy was buoyed by the presence of a U.S. Cold War military base monitoring the Soviet Union. However, by the time it closed in 2006, the base no longer had the importance in the local economy it once did.

-- The economy depends heavily on the fishing industry, which provided 70 percent of export earnings and has employed 6 percent of the work force. However, it has diversified into manufacturing and service industries in the last decade, and promoted software production, biotechnology, and financial services.

GOVERNMENT - Legislative power is vested jointly in the president and the 63-seat unicameral Althingi, elected for a four-year period. The Althingi traces its origins to the assembly established by Viking settlers in A.D. 930, making it the world's oldest parliament.

AREA - 103,100 sq km (39,810 square miles). Four-fifths of the island is uninhabited. Glaciers cover 11 percent of the land and trees are a prized rarity. It lies in the North Atlantic about 800 km (500 miles) north of Scotland: