WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Any effort by the U.S. Treasury Department to backstop Fannie Mae (FNM.N) and Freddie Mac (FRE.N) would seek to maintain the companies as shareholder-owned enterprises, a source familiar with Treasury thinking said on Friday.

The source said that a cornerstone of any government intervention would be to maintain housing finance companies Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac as private enterprises.

Shares of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac have plummeted this week after news reports that the federal government was poised to nationalize the mortgage-finance companies.

(Reporting by Patrick Rucker; Editing by Leslie Adler)

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