WASHINGTON (AFP) - US Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson is expected to detail the government's plan to take over struggling mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac on Sunday, the Treasury announced.

Paulson and Federal Housing Finance Agency Director James Lockhart were scheduled to hold a news conference at 11 am (1500 GMT).

For months the US government tried to shore up the two companies -- government-chartered, shareholder-owned firms that have a hand in 50 percent of all mortgages in the United States.

But on Friday, news reports said it had concluded that it needed to take direct control and use federal funds to bail the pair out.

Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac have been whipsawed by the meltdown in the housing and housing finance markets in the past year, losing some 90 percent of their value on fears of losses from mortgage defaults.

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