U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner said on Thursday he is confident that the United States can avert a debt crisis in the near future.

Geithner said Thursday after a meeting with freshmen Republicans in the House that a default crisis will be avoided, as Congress and the White House can reach a deal on long-term fiscal plans this summer.

The U.S. Treasury Department stressed on Wednesday that the nation has hit the 14.29-trillion-U.S.-dollar legal ceiling on borrowings and was starting to take extraordinary measures to buy some time until Aug. 2 for Democrats and Republicans to ink a deal and ward off a default on U.S. debt.

Geithner has repeatedly urged Congress to avoid the catastrophic economic and market consequences of a default crisis by raising the statutory debt limit in a timely manner to avoid first-ever federal government default on its obligations.

Moody's Investors Service warned on Thursday that it expected to put the U.S. government's rating on review for possible downgrade if there is no progress on increasing the statutory debt limit in coming weeks.