Economy needs months to recover: Paulson

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. economy will need months to recover from a growth slowdown caused by a home mortgage crisis, turmoil in financial markets and high energy prices, Treasure Secretary Henry Paulson said on Sunday.

Paulson also told CBS television's "Face the Nation" he was optimistic Congress would approve the Bush administration's request for authority to lend money to the troubled mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.

"We're going through a challenging time with our economy," Paulson said. "We're going to be in a period of slow growth for a while ... I think it's going to be months that we're working our way through this period."

A key to recovery was for the housing market to stabilize quickly, he said. To that end, it was essential that Congress approve the plan aimed at shoring up confidence in Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.

Paulson said he was "very optimistic we're going get what we need from Congress."

(Reporting by Randall Mikkelsen, editing by Alan Elsner)