Special Report: Global Financial Crisis

    WASHINGTON, Jan. 12 (Xinhua) -- On behalf of President-elect Barack Obama, U.S. President George W. Bush on Monday formally asked Congress for the remaining 350 billion U.S. dollars from the 700-billion-dollar financial bailout fund.

    "We have shared design and analysis of several foreclosure mitigation options with the transition team and anticipate the remaining funds will be used in part for a foreclosure mitigation program and for expansion of existing programs," said a White House report.

    The Bush administration "believes that submission of this report at this time is consistent with the continued need to promote financial market stability," the report added.

    But the White House said the current administration had no intention of allocating additional funds from the 350 billion dollars.

    "I have talked to the president-elect about this subject. And I told him that if he felt he needed the 350 billion dollars, I would be willing to ask for it. In other words, if he felt it needed to happen on my watch," Bush said at a news conference Monday morning.

    Bush also defended his handling of the first 350 billion dollars.

    "I readily concede I chucked aside some of my free market principles when I was told by chief economic advisers that the situation we were facing could be worse than the Great Depression," Bush said.

    He noted that after taking extraordinary measures to deal with the frozen credit market, "credit spreads are beginning to shrink, lending is just beginning to pick up."

    Congress approved the 700-billion-dollar bailout plan last October, authorizing the U.S. government to engage in the largest financial intervention since the Great Depression.