No plans to infuse GSEs with capital: Paulson

WASHINGTON | Tue Jul 22, 2008 9:44am EDT

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The government wants authority to provide capital for embattled mortgage finance enterprises Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to boost market confidence but has no immediate plans to use that authority, Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson said on Tuesday.

"We have no plans right now to put capital in," Paulson said in a Bloomberg television interview.

Paulson urged Congress to pass legislation giving Treasury the authority it seeks to buy equity capital in either of the enterprises, but criticized portions of a bill working its way through Congress as "divisive" and "extraneous."

(Reporting by Mark Felsenthal; Editing by James Dalgleish)

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