Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner said on Wednesday that a program for cleansing so-called toxic assets from banks' balance sheets will start operating over the next six weeks.

In remarks prepared for delivery to the Senate Banking Committee, Geithner also said the U.S. financial system was starting to heal after a period of severe trauma, and estimated that $123.7 billion was left in a financial bailout fund approved by Congress in October.

(Reporting by Glenn Somerville, Editing by Chizu Nomiyama)

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