Geithner defends TARP; cautious on economic recovery

US treasury secretary Timothy Geithner defended the government's efforts to bring the economy back on track through stimulus packages, but cautioned that the recovery would be slow and painful.

 "We understood how bad this was-how damaging this was-and we did things that people were incredibly critical of because we knew that this was getting away from us," said Geithner  at a hearing of the Congressional Oversight Panel on the Troubled Asset Relief Programme (TARP).

He said it was time to roll back some of the extraordinary steps put in place over the past 12 months to keep banks solvent and credit flowing.

However he admitted that the economy is still facing serious problems.

"It is only now we're seeing positive growth for the first time. Unemployment is still very high and could stay high for some period of time. We are not close to being through this."

Geithner said the country needs not only to fix what is broken but also take preventive measures against a similar collapse happening again.