MOSCOW, October 21 (RIA Novosti) - Russia's government will take additional measures to support the country's economy, primarily its non-financial sector, amid the ongoing global credit crunch, a presidential aide said on Tuesday.

Russian banks will issue extra loans to retailers, including pharmacies, Arkady Dvorkovich said. The government will also provide guarantees to house builders, and increase the amount of loans for agricultural producers.

State support for small businesses "will be increased to 50 billion rubles ($1.9 billion)," Dvorkovich said, referring to business incubators and other financial support schemes.

"We are sure that the implementation of other earlier decided on measures will allow the entire banking system to work steadily in the future," he said.

He said the state would offer to buy flats from house builders to reassure banks, providing them with money for construction and so guaranteeing the sales of flats and loan repayments.

Dvorkovich also said that the state would provide additional funds to finance state defense orders. He also said that in machine-building, both defense-oriented companies and those taking part in national projects would be provided with additional interest rate subsidies.

"Many procedures concerning state purchases will be boosted so that money is not kept for too long in the state budget, but is fed faster into the non-financial sector of the economy," he said.

He also said that in order to provide the necessary resources, the state budget for this and the next three years would be revised.