By Gertrude Chavez-Dreyfuss
NEW YORK, Feb 9 (Reuters) - The dollar weakened across the board on Monday, weighed down by growing uncertainty over the timing and details of U.S. plans for a massive fiscal stimulus and a much-anticipated package to help banks.
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President Barack Obama's administration pushed back the announcement of the bank rescue plan, which had been scheduled for Monday, until Tuesday as the government pressed lawmakers to settle their differences over the economic stimulus plan.

The announcement of the rescue plan, which aims to shore up some of the biggest U.S. banking institutions, was pushed back to enable lawmakers to spend the day focusing on the stimulus package ahead of a vote on Tuesday.

"That delay in the Treasury announcement undermines the enthusiasm that we we have seen in the market late last week," said Omer Esiner, senior market analyst, at Ruesch International in Washington.
"I think it did highlight the troubles the Obama administration faces in finding non-partisan support for the stimulus package. And that has pressured the dollar," he added.

Over the last few months the dollar has gained in the face of bleak U.S. economic news, with investors buying the currency on the view the U.S. government was the most aggressive among industrialized nations in tackling the credit crisis. That should help the U.S. economy emerge from recession quickly, analysts said.

But some cite the view that the stimulus package is U.S.-specific and a negative for the U.S. economy. "The knee-jerk reaction is to sell the U.S. dollar," Ruesch's Esiner said.

In early New York trading, the euro was up 0.8 percent at $1.3033 . The dollar was down 0.4 percent against the yen at 91.62 .

The euro was up 0.4 percent against the yen at 119.43 yen , recovering from an earlier session low of around 117.07 yen.

Analysts, however, said the decline in the dollar is not the start of a downtrend.

Brown Brothers Harriman said in a research note the negative turn in dollar sentiment came as a number of countries, including the United States, moved closer to adopting new measures to address the financial and economic crisis. That should help stem the worsening in the global economy and result in further euro and sterling gains.

"That is not to say that the dollar's long term uptrend has come to an end. We expect the more pro-active approach from the U.S. government and the central bank to begin to bear economic and financial fruit in the coming quarter."

Sterling rose 1.0 percent to $1.4948 , after UK bank Barclays Plc (BARC.L) earlier booked a bigger-than-expected annual profit of over 6 billion pounds and said credit market losses were waning. The pound earlier hit a nearly one-month peak at $1.4977, according to Reuters data.

With little on the economic calendar on Monday, market focus stayed firmly on the U.S. Congress, which remains sharply divided along party lines on an $800 billion-plus economic plan and the bank bailout plan.

The U.S. financial stability plan is due to be outlined by Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner at 1600 GMT on Tuesday.

(Editing by Chizu Nomiyama)