Wells Fargo & Co. could join five other major lenders in a plan to help homeowners who are seriously in arrears on mortgage payments, the Associated Press reported.

The Treasury Department and the Department of Housing and Urban Development are expected to announce Project Lifeline today, according to a source familiar with the plan.

Bank of America Corp., Citigroup Inc., Countrywide Financial Corp., JPMorgan Chase & Co. and Washington Mutual Inc. also are part of the plan, which would give homeowners who are at least 90 days behind on mortgage payments an extra 30 days before foreclosure to try to work out more affordable loan terms with lenders.

The six lenders are already involved in Hope Now, a deal made with the Bush administration late last year to freeze rates on some high-cost subprime mortgages for five years to help borrowers whose rates are skyrocketing. The New Hope alliance, made up of lenders, investors and nonprofit groups, said last week that it had helped almost 8 percent of subprime borrowers in the last six months of 2007.