US Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke is calling on Washington to ramp up efforts to stem soaring home foreclosures. He blames these for feeding into the country's deep economic troubles.

At a Fed conference on housing, Bernanke stressed the importance of reversing the growing trend of foreclosures because it's integrally linked with the health of the US economy.

US Federal Reserve Bank Chairman Ben Bernanke makes remarks to a home ownership and mortgage issues conference at the Federal Reserve in Washington, December 4, 2008. [Jonathan Ernst/REUTERS]

Although a flurry of actions has been taken to ease the housing crisis, he said foreclosures still remain too high, with adverse consequences for homeowners, lenders, and the broader economy.

Ben Bernanke, Chairman of US Federal Reserve, said, "Weakness in the housing market has proven to be a serious drag on the overall economy. Likewise, a slowing economy has in turn reduced the demand for houses, implying a further weakening of conditions in mortgage and housing markets."

But Bernanke doesn't expect government intervention specifically aimed at boosting sagging home prices.

He said the government should instead take steps to improve the functioning of the mortgage market. This will allow more people to secure home loans and help stabilize the housing market.

Ben Bernanke, Chairman of US Federal Reserve, said, "I don't think we would be either willing or able to target house prices. I think that would probably be an impossible thing to do given the size of the national housing market. But I do think we can act to try to improve, in particular, the functioning of the mortgage market. And through that allow more people who want to buy homes to get the financing. And that itself would help stabilize the market without avoiding what is in fact a necessary adjustment in prices to get affordability back to a more normal level."

Bernanke also outlined a number of other options to reduce foreclosures.

He called on Congress to ease the terms of a government program that lets homeowners refinance into more affordable and federally insured mortgages.

He also said Congress should lower lenders' upfront insurance premiums as well as reducing the interest rates borrowers pay.

(CCTV December 5, 2008)