Prime Minister Kevin Rudd is standing by his Defence Minister, but says he is disappointed Joel Fitzgibbon failed to declare gifts he received from a Chinese-born businesswoman.

Mr Fitzgibbon last night admitted he failed to declare that Helen Liu paid for him to visit China in 2002 and 2005, and gave him a suit last year, which he later returned.

He previously said that he had only ever received small Christmas and birthday gifts from Ms Liu, who Mr Fitzgibbon says is a close family friend.

The Obama administration today formally unveiled details of its long-awaited plan to help cleanse banks and financial institutions of bad home loans and toxic securities, making a calculated gamble that partnering with private investors to buy the assets will stabilize the crisis while limiting the risk to taxpayers.

Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner, who finished testimony before the Senate Budget committee moments ago, reaffirmed that the cost of cleaning up all the toxic assets clogging the balance sheets of sick financial institutions will be at least $1 trillion.