(Agencies)
Updated: 2007-12-03 21:15

New York - US Democratic presidential front-runner Hillary Clinton is expected on Monday to call for a 90-day moratorium on home foreclosures and a five-year freeze on the rates of adjustable rate mortgages, the Wall Street Journal reported in its online edition.

US Democratic presidential candidate Senator Hillary Clinton (D-NY) leaves a news conference during a campaign rally stop in Cedar Rapids, Iowa December 2, 2007. [Agencies]

Sources said on Friday that the US Treasury Department was finalizing a similar plan with mortgage industry leaders.

According to the Journal, Clinton was prompted by recent news reports that a similar accord is being negotiated between regulators and a group of mortgage-related firms, including Citigroup Inc, Wells Fargo & Co, Washington Mutual Inc and Countrywide Financial Corp.

Clinton is floating her proposal in the form of a letter to US Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson, the Journal said.

"I think it's inevitable" that the political conversation will turn more sharply toward economic issues as the campaigns move into 2008," Clinton told the Journal in an interview.

"I'm very pleased the administration is responding to this crisis," Clinton told the newspaper.