HONOLULU -- New help is on the way for hundreds of thousands of American homeowners facing foreclosure.

The Bush administration Tuesday unveiled a plan to help financially strapped borrowers keep their homes by making their mortgage payments more affordable.

The rescue plan is for homeowners with Fanny Mae or Freddy Mac guaranteed mortgages. They must live in their homes and must be 90 days or more late in their mortgage payments.

"This is not loan forgiveness. Loans will be paid but under terms that are affordable to buyers," said Brian Montgomery, with the Federal Housing Administration.

The plan includes lowering interest rates, or giving homeowners longer to pay off their mortgages.

Donald Lau, president of the Hawaii Association of Mortgage Brokers, said help should be offered sooner.

"It is a good step in the right direction but it doesn't go far enough in the sense that one has to wait to be 90 days delinquent to apply for that program. Once you go 90 days delinquent. I mean your credit scores get really jammed up," Lau said.

Lau said he also thinks it would more helpful to offer struggling homeowners were temporarily offered interest only payments

That would be a lot easier than paying the principal and interest monthly where you just pay the interest only and that would greatly help," Lau said.

Hawaii realtors thought Tuesday's news is a good first step and might help banks and other mortgage servicers come up with similar ways to help their distressed borrowers avoid foreclosure.

But there is nothing to force private lenders holding most of the troubled sub prime loans to follow the plan.