Paulson: Regaining US economic health to take time

WASHINGTON, Nov 17 (Reuters) - U.S. Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson said on Monday that solid progress has been made in stabilizing the U.S. financial system but it will take considerable time to restore it to health.

"In terms of where we need to be, in the first case we were dealing with systemic events. ... We've got a lot of work to do to restore the financial system, and I think restoring the financial system will go a long way toward helping the economy to recover," Paulson said at a conference organized by The Wall Street Journal.

At the same conference, former Treasury Secretary Lawrence Summers said he felt the economy will need "speedy, substantial, sustained" stimulus lasting for years in order to fully recover. (Reporting by Glenn Somerville and David Lawder; Editing by Leslie Adler)