UPDATE 2-Fannie, Freddie outlook still troubled -FHFA chief

* Further Treasury assistance likely to be needed - FHFA

* Dodd looks toward task of fixing Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac

* FHA seeks to soothe concerns about its future in House (Adds Stevens comments, background)

By Kevin Drawbaugh

WASHINGTON, Oct 8 (Reuters) - The outlook for mortgage finance giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac remains shaky and they may need more aid on top of the almost $100 billion the U.S. Treasury has already provided, their chief regulator said on Thursday.

Fannie Mae FNM.N FNM.N and Freddie Mac FRE.N FRE.P, which together own or guarantee half of all U.S. mortgages, were seized by the federal government and put into conservatorship in September 2008.

"With continuing uncertainty regarding economic conditions, employment, house prices and mortgage delinquency rates, the short-term outlook for the enterprises remains troubled," said Edward DeMarco, acting director of their regulator and conservator, the Federal Housing Finance Agency, at a hearing held by the Senate Banking Committee.

Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac have drawn $96 billion from the Treasury under a senior preferred stock purchase agreement.

The two "likely will require additional draws" under that assistance program, DeMarco told the committee.

After the U.S. housing bubble burst, triggering a severe financial crisis that has shaken economies worldwide, the government takeover of Fannie and Freddie marked a historic chapter in U.S. housing finance that is still being written.

President Barack Obama and congressional Democrats are working on a sweeping package of proposals to tighten regulation of banks and capital markets in hopes of preventing a repeat of the 2008-2009 financial crisis.

Fixing Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac is a huge task which is not at the top of the priority list for administration and Capitol Hill reformers at the moment, but looms ahead in 2010 and beyond.

"Fannie and Freddie were neither the villains that caused the crisis, as some claim, nor the victims of that crisis, as others would make them out to be," Banking Committee Chairman Christopher Dodd, a Democrat, said at the hearing.

"They didn't create the subprime and exotic loan market -- but they did chase it to generate profits. ... Fannie and Freddie enriched their shareholders and management, while the public took the losses. We can't let that happen again."

In February, the Treasury agreed to raise to $200 billion from $100 billion the amount of aid it would be ready to extend to Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac by buying their preferred stock.

The Congressional Budget Office has estimated that nearly $400 billion will be needed to assist the two organizations.

In a related matter, the Federal Housing Administration, another pillar of housing finance, sought to assure Congress on Thursday that it will not need similar help from taxpayers.

Based on current projections, "FHA will not need to ask Congress or the American taxpayer for extraordinary assistance. We will not need a bailout," said FHA Commissioner David Stevens at a hearing held by the housing subcommittee of the House of Representatives.

But real estate finance consultant Edward Pinto was more pessimistic in his testimony to the panel. He warned of a "growing fiscal crisis" at FHA and said it "appears destined for a taxpayer bailout in the next 24 to 36 months."

The FHA recently said its capital reserve ratio was expected to fall below 2 percent, a development that raised concerns among some about the agency's future. (Editing by James Dalgleish)