Geithner: mortgage program won't meet initial goals

WASHINGTON Feb 17 (Reuters) - U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner said on Thursday that the Obama administration's main housing rescue program will not reach the 3 million to 4 million people it was initially estimated to help by the end of 2012.

Geithner, speaking at a U.S. Senate Budget Committee hearing, said it would reach more people but "we won't come close to initial estimates."

He said taxpayer-funded incentives to mortgage servicers to slash monthly payments for struggling borrowers "have not been powerful enough, in all cases, to overwhelm all of the muck that these servicers have created."