Recession 2011: Geithner to remain as US Treasury Secretary

WASHINGTON: US Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner will not resign, his spokesman said today, rejecting demands from Republicans for him to step down after a recent US credit rating downgrade.

"Secretary Geithner has let the President know that he plans to stay on in his position at Treasury," Assistant Secretary for Public Affairs Jenni LeCompte said in a statement.

However, he did not say how long Geithner would stay as Treasury Secretary.

Earlier, according to media reports, Geithner had told President Barack Obama that he would leave his cabinet by this summer as his family has moved to New York. But the Treasury statement did not address this question.

"He looks forward to the important work ahead on the challenges facing our great country," LeCompte said.

Republican Senator Rand Paul had asked Geithner to step down for what his office called a "gross mismanagement of federal economic policy and his role in the first-ever downgrade of United States debt."

Standard & Poor's had docked the US from a sterling AAA to a AA+ rating on Friday, largely because of the failure of bitterly divided US leaders to reach a consensus on containing the country's spiraling debt.