"The effects of this crisis have also reverberated across the financial markets. When the housing market collapsed, so did the availability of credit on which our economy depends," said Obama.

"As that credit has dried up, it has been harder for families to find affordable loans to purchase a car or pay tuition and harder for businesses to secure the capital they need to expand and create jobs," he said.

Obama's strategy for economic recovery is a stool with several legs, as he's said, and one of them is solving the foreclosure crisis.

The administration is also working to stabilize, repair and reform the nation's financial system in order to get credit flowing again to families and businesses. A new financial rescue plan was released earlier this month.

Just one day before the mortgage relief plan, Obama signed a US$787-billion economic stimulus bill into law in Denver, Colorado. It is designed to jolt the ailing US economy by providing government spending and tax cuts for both individuals and businesses.

(Xinhua News Agency February 19, 2009)