Darling to help small businesses: paper

LONDON (Reuters) - Britain's Finance Minister Alistair Darling is set to introduce measures next week aimed at helping small companies secure finance and insurance amid signs of a lending slowdown, a media report said on Thursday.

He is to underwrite new loans to small firms and extend taxpayer guarantees to bank lending to smaller companies, the Financial Times said.

Darling is also expected to announce an increase in funding for a scheme that allows small companies to apply for bank loans that carry a 75 percent taxpayer guarantee.

The Finance Minister last month called on bank chiefs to raise lending to last year's levels of 53 billion pounds.

(Reporting by Avril Ormsby)