The U.S. government will very soon launch its program to use federal funds and private capital to buy banks' toxic assets, the new overseer of the government's $700-billion bank bailout fund said on Tuesday.

I'm confident that very soon we'll be launching partnerships, said Herb Allison to the Congressional Oversight Panel. We've made a great deal of progress.

Allison, who was confirmed last week as Treasury assistant secretary to head the Troubled Assets Relief Program (TARP), said it shouldn't be long before Treasury announces the first stage in the delayed toxic asset plan called the Public-Private Investment Program (PPIP).

(Reporting by Karey Wutkowski and Glenn Somerville; Editing by Diane Craft)

Launch