Washington  - President-elect Barack Obama unveiled the leaders of his economic policy on Monday, naming Timothy Geithner to head the US Treasury and Larry Summers as his top White House economic advisor.

Geithner, currently the president of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, will be rescuing the financial industry from its worst crisis since the Great Depression. He has already worked closely with current Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson and Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke since the financial crisis spiralled out of control in September.

"We are facing an economic crisis of historic proportions," Obama said in a Chicago press conference that marked the first cabinet positions officially unveiled since his election November 4.

"We'll need to bring together the best minds in America to guide us, and that is what I've sought to do in assembling my economic team," he said. "I've sought leaders who could offer both sound judgement and fresh thinking."

Summers will become director of the White House National Economic Council, making him Obama's chief economic policy advisor. Summers is a respected economic voice who served as Treasury secretary in the latter years of former president Bill Clinton's administration.

Obama said the new team would begin work immediately on a new fiscal stimulus package to revive a US economy that is likely headed into a recession.

Obama also named Christina Romer, a long-time professor at the University of California at Berkeley and specialist on the Great Depression, to lead the White House Council of Economic Advisors, a team of three that help develop economic policy.

Melody Barnes was named director of the Domestic Policy Council. She had previously served as a top advisor to Obama during the presidential campaign. (dpa)