国际英语新闻：Obama "very confident" toxic asset plan will work

WASHINGTON, March 23 (Xinhua) -- U.S. President Barack Obama said on Monday that he was "very confident" that the latest plan to clean up toxic assets from bank balance sheets will work.

"We believe this is one more element that is going to be absolutely critical in getting credit flowing again," Obama spoke briefly to reporters after meeting with his economic advisors at the White House.

The news of the government's bad asset rescue plan is seen on the screen at Times Square in New York, the United States, March 23, 2009

    "It's not going to happen overnight, there is still great fragility in the financial systems but we think that we are moving in the right direction," he said.

    Earlier Monday, the Treasury Department unveiled a long-awaited program aimed at cleansing toxic assets from bank balance sheets that have frozen up lending and fueled the recession.

    The Treasury said the three part program will provide financing through the Federal Reserve and the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp.(FDIC) to help public-private investment partnerships buy up to 1 trillion U.S. dollars in distressed loans and securities.