Iceland's Treasury officials meet to try to resolve its banking crisis.

So far Iceland is not willing to guarantee British savings in its defunct banks. It appears that  more than 100 local councils, police authorities and fire services have up to £1bn lost in its bankrupted system. Charities, including children's hospices, warned they were at risk of losing £25m.

Local Government Association (LGA) had accumulated reports showing that 108 councils in England, Scotland and Wales had deposited £798.95m in Icelandic banks.

The British government invoked the Anti-Terrorism Crime and Security Act 2001 to freeze the British assets of Landsbanki.

Under Iceland's financial regulations, the government is supposed to pay up to £16,000 compensation per frozen account at a total cost of £2.2bn.

Authorities with big investments include Kent county council with £50m; Nottingham city council, £42m; Norfolk county council, £32.5m; Dorset county council, and Hertfordshire county council, both £28m.

Fifteen police forces also have investments in Iceland, as does Transport for London (TfL) which revealed it had a £40m deposit with Kaupthing Singer & Friedlander, a UK subsidiary of the bankrupt Kaupthing bank.

TfL, which runs the London bus and tube services, said it did not know if it would get the money back. But a spokesman said TfL's £7bn budget was big enough to absorb the loss.

The collapse of Icelandic banks had hit charities hard with some losing up to one fifth of their reserves, in sums ranging up to £12m. The total losses reported to Acevo added up to more than £25m.

It also emerged yesterday that the 300,000 UK personal savers who had accounts with Icesave would be lucky to get their money back by Christmas.