Treasury consulting Obama team on credit plans

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. government will need a variety of programs to deal with troubled credit markets and is open to feedback from the incoming Obama administration in developing them, a senior U.S. Treasury official said on Wednesday.

"There's going to be a number of things we need to do. We're going to have to have targeted solutions to different aspects of the credit market," undersecretary for international affairs David McCormick told the C-SPAN cable television network.

McCormick said U.S. Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson was pushing his staff to develop new programs for deploying the $700 billion financial rescue fund known as the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP).

After allocating $20 billion to a Federal Reserve consumer lending facility announced on Tuesday, the Treasury has just $20 billion to spend before it must return to Congress for permission to access a second $350 billion in the program

He said the Treasury staff has "gone out of our way" to communicate policy plans to President-elect Barack Obama's transition team and hoping that any new programs gain the support of Obama and his choice for Treasury Secretary, New York Federal Reserve President Timothy Geithner.

"In the event that that there's feedback of concern and feedback on things that might be done to make these programs better, we're open to that and trying to ensure that we put the best programs in place possible," McCormick said.

McCormick said the Treasury also is consulting with Congress as it develops new programs to support the financial system.

(Reporting by David Lawder)