In his first television interview, Federal Reserve chairman Ben Bernanke predicted that America's worst recession in decades will likely end this year before a recovery gathers steam next year. The "green shoots" of economic revival are already evident, Bernanke told CBS program "60 Minutes" in the interview broadcast late Sunday, which the network said was the first by any sitting Fed chairman in 20 years.

His assessment chimed with a new tone of cautious optimism from President Barack Obama's administration as top economic aides took to the airwaves earlier on March 15.

"It is an economic war. We haven't won yet. We have staged a wonderful battle," Christina Romer, chairwoman of the White House Council of Economic Advisers, said on NBC's "Meet the Press."

Echoed by Lawrence Summers, director of Obama's National Economic Council, Romer said a proposal from Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner to clean out US banks' bad loans would "come out very soon."

Predicting that no more big banks will fail, Bernanke also called on Washington's squabbling politicians to show the will needed for recovery, arguing the world came "very close" to financial meltdown last September before government intervention.

The US central bank chief said much depends on fixing the banking system. "We're working on it. And I do think that we will get it stabilized, and we'll see the recession coming to an end probably this year," Bernanke said. "We'll see recovery beginning next year. And it will pick up steam over time."

Asked if the U.S. had escaped a repeat of the 1930s Great Depression, Bernanke said: "I think we've averted that risk."

Last week, the blue-chip Dow Jones share index staged a stunning comeback from 12-year lows on hopes for a recovery by the battered banking sector and tentative signs of stability in some economic reports.

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