The World Bank will help companies in developing nations restructure their debt following financial turmoil that slammed the brakes on economic growth, its chief Robert Zoellick said Monday.

The bank's private sector arm, the International Finance Corporation (IFC), is looking into the issue aside from helping nations cope with trade financing and capitalizing banks amid a global credit crunch, Zoellick told CNBC, a US financial news broadcasting network.

The IFC is the largest multilateral financial institution investing in the pri-

vate sector in emerging markets.

"The IFC, our private sector side, has been mobi-lizing private sector resources for issues like trade finance and capitalizing banks in small countries and I hope we may actually look at restructuring some of the private sector debt because I think that's going to be one of the big issues in those countries," Zoellick said.

He also cited protectionism and challenges in the banking system in central and eastern Europe as among other issues arising from the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression in the 1930s.

"Protectionism would make this much more like the 30s," he said, adding that "naming and shaming" nations that resorted to such moves could help address the problem.

But Zoellick said that feedback he received from politicians and financial markets recently indicated that the financial crisis was easing.

"I was in New York on Friday, my sense is that in the financial sector, people are starting to feel some positive opportunities," he said.

"1 was with finance ministers over the past week or so and you get a little bit of sigh of relief I think because they broke the fall," he said.