In an attempt to appease financial markets that have been in turmoil for three weeks, Truss fired Kwasi Kwarteng as her chancellor of the exchequer on Friday and scrapped parts of their controversial economic package.

With opinion poll ratings dire for both the ruling Conservative Party and the prime minister personally - and many of her own lawmakers asking, not if, but how Truss should be removed - Truss is relying on Hunt to help salvage her premiership less than 40 days after taking office.

In an article for the Sun newspaper published late on Saturday, Truss admitted the plans had gone "further and faster than the markets were expecting".

"I've listened, I get it," she wrote.

"We cannot pave the way to a low-tax, high-growth economy without maintaining the confidence of the markets in our commitment to sound money."

She said Hunt would lay out at the end of the month the plan to get national debt down "over the medium term".

But, the speculation about her future shows no sign of diminishing, with Sunday's newspapers rife with stories that allies of Rishi Sunak, another former finance minister who she beat to become leader last month, were plotting to force her out within weeks.

On a tour of TV and radio studios, Hunt gave a blunt assessment of the situation the country faced, saying Truss and Kwarteng had made mistakes and further changes to her plans were possible.

"We will have some very difficult decisions ahead," he said.

"The thing that people want, the markets want, the country needs now, is stability."

Truss had won the leadership contest to replace Boris Johnson on a platform of big tax cuts to stimulate growth, which Kwarteng duly announced last month. But the absence of any details of how the cuts would be funded sent the markets into meltdown.

Hunt is due to announce the government's medium-term budget plans on October 31, in what will be a key test of its ability to show it can restore its economic policy credibility.

Hunt, an experienced minister and viewed by many in his party as a safe pair of hands, said he agreed with Truss' fundamental strategy of kickstarting economic growth, but he added that their approach had not worked.

"There were some mistakes made in the last few weeks. That's why I'm sitting here. It was a mistake to cut the top rate of tax at a period when we're asking everyone to make sacrifices," he said.

Hunt said Truss should be judged at an election and on her performance over the next 18 months - not the past 18 days.

However, she might not get that chance. During the leadership contest, Truss won support from less than a third of Conservative lawmakers and has appointed her backers since taking office - alienating those who supported her rivals.

The appointment of Hunt, who ran to be leader himself and then backed Sunak, has been seen as a sign of her reaching out, but the move did little to placate some of her party critics.

"It's over for her," one Conservative lawmaker told Reuters after Friday's events.

Australian Associated Press