“As I understand it, Bear Stearns had $65 billion due on Monday and I didn't have $65 billion,'' Buffett said. "I couldn't get my mind around that situation in the required time.'' New York-based JPMorgan was the right buyer for Bear Stearns, he added.

Berkshire had about $35 billion in cash as of March 31, according to a regulatory filing yesterday.

May 3 (Bloomberg) -- Warren Buffett, chief executive officer of Berkshire Hathaway Inc., said the global credit crunch has eased for bankers and the Federal Reserve probably averted more failures by helping to rescue Bear Stearns Cos.

“The worst of the crisis in Wall Street is over,'' Buffett said today on Bloomberg Television. “In terms of people with individual mortgages, there's a lot of pain left to come.'' Buffett was interviewed before the Omaha, Nebraska-based company's annual meeting, attended by about 31,000 people.

Buffett, the world's richest man according to Forbes magazine, said the Fed acted properly when it arranged a $2.4 billion bailout in March of New York-based Bear Stearns by JPMorgan Chase & Co.  The billionaire said he turned down the opportunity because he lacked enough capital and time to grasp the situation. More failures and wider panic may have resulted if the regulators didn't halt the run on Bear Stearns, he said.

“The worry was that there would be contagion; it was a very real worry,'' Buffett said. “If Bear Stearns had gone, the next day, somebody else would have gone. It could've been a very, very, very chaotic situation.''

Buffett is scheduled to embark on a four-city European trip this month to scout potential acquisitions, including family- owned companies. He has been investing in China, Israel and the U.K. to spur profit growth after saying that U.S. investments meeting his criteria have become scarce.

“Over time we'd like to develop more international earnings,'' Buffett said. "If it's a $2 billion deal, fine; if it's a $20 billion dollar deal, fine.''

Buffett, who made his first non-U.S. acquisition in 2006, paying $4 billion for 80 percent of Israel-based Iscar Metalworking Cos., said he can't predict the location of the next company Berkshire will acquire.