Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner said Tuesday that that the Obama administration is close to finishing a plan to deal with the toxic assets at the heart of the financial crisis.

Geithner told interviewer Charlie Rose late Tuesday that the administration started with “just a deep mess,” but will keep working on the problems until they’re fixed.

Geithner said the plan will be unveiled within the next couple of weeks. It will provide government financing to private investors who are willing to buy the bad assets clogging banks’ balance sheets.

The administration believes that by getting the bad loans and other troublesome assets off banks’ books, it will encourage financial institutions to resume more normal lending to consumers and businesses.