WASHINGTON -- The Bush administration has hammered out an agreement to freeze interest rates for certain subprime mortgages for five years to combat a soaring tide of foreclosures, congressional aides said Wednesday. The aides, who spoke on condition of anonymity because the details have not yet been released, said the five-year moratorium represented a compromise between banking regulators and the mortgage industry. Another person familiar with the matter said the rate-freeze plan would apply to borrowers with loans made at the start of 2005 through July 30 of this year with rates that are scheduled to rise between Jan. 1, 2008, and July 31, 2010. The administration said President Bush will speak on the agreement today at the White House.

-- The Associated Press