A new committee will attempt to tackle the impact of the global financial crisis on Dubai's economy, as the emirate struggles to maintain investor confidence amid concerns about transparency.

'To an extent a bit of the negative press is self-inflicted because we weren't transparent enough. We could get away with a number of things,' Nasser Al-Shaikh, committee member and director-general of the Dubai Department of Finance, said at a meeting of bankers.

Investors have exited stock markets in Dubai and Abu Dhabi en masse, pushing Dubai's benchmark down more than 60 percent this year, partly on concerns the emirate's property sector could crash.

The crisis committee, headed by Emaar Properties chairman Mohamed Alabbar, would take its recommendations to the emirate's ruler, as well as release more details to the public, Shaikh said.

"The purpose of the committee is to assess the impact of the global financial crisis on Dubai and what can be done in sectors including real estate and banking," Shaikh told Reuters.

"It is up to us ... we have to deal with the challenges to minimise the (impact of the) crisis on Dubai."

Dubai, one of seven members in the United Arab Emirates federation, was the "most vulnerable" to an economic downturn in the world's biggest oil-exporting region, Citigroup said on Tuesday.

Dubai's economy has been surging on six years of high oil prices, which has allowed it to expand its real estate, financial services and tourism sectors. But analysts are widely expecting a correction in house prices in the emirate, which opened its real estate market to foreign investment in 2002.

"Nobody is immune. Everyone is facing challenges," Shaikh said, adding the committee would take its policy recommendations to Dubai ruler Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al-Maktoum, also UAE prime minister and vice president.

Alabbar would provide more details next week, he said. Dubai's government does not publish figures on debt but Fitch Ratings said earlier this month government-owned entities own about $70 billion in foreign-currency bonds and debt.

Shaikh said most Dubai government affiliated firms are able to meet their debt obligations, but "there might be a few that may need the government to pitch in as needed".

Financial Times reported on Wednesday that Dubai was talking with the federal government to create a state-funded loan facility to help firms access finance as international capital dries up.

Shaikh said the committee also included Bourse Dubai chairman Essa Kazim, head of the Dubai ruler's court Mohammed Al-Shaibani, Marwan bin Ghalita, chief executive of Dubai's real estate regulator, and Dubai Holding chairman Mohammed Al-Gergawi.-Reuters