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The Obama administration, scrambling to get its main housing initiative on track, extracted a pledge from mortgage company executives to improve their efforts to assist borrowers in danger of foreclosure.

As of this week, only about 200,000 borrowers were enrolled in three-month trial loan modifications, out of about 370,000 who were offered modifications by mortgage companies.

In an all-day meeting Tuesday at the Treasury Department, government officials reached an agreement with the executives for a new goal of about 500,000 loan modifications by Nov. 1. The meeting came amid concerns that the Obama administration will fall far short of its original goal of helping up to 3 million to 4 million troubled borrowers with modified loans.

There are numerous complaints from borrowers, housing counselors and activist groups that the application process is a confusing, bureaucratic nightmare.

“Today’s meeting was an opportunity to identify ways to accelerate the program and bring relief faster,” Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner said in a statement.

Mortgage companies, she said, are “doing things that are just outright prohibited” under the plan.

“There needs to be a lot more accountability and oversight,” said Brenda Muniz, legislative director for the community group ACORN, which has been holding protests around the country to draw attention to the slow progress of the administration’s plan.

On Tuesday, an activist group in Minnesota filed a lawsuit seeking to stop home foreclosures in that state. Mark Ireland, an attorney with the Minnesota-based Foreclosure Law Relief Project, said the government has failed to establish the procedures needed to ensure the fair and uniform administration of the program.

Housing counselors say borrowers are being charged upfront fees and given inaccurate or confusing information about the program. The delays are long and, in some cases, lenders continue the foreclosure process while loans are being reviewed for a modification.

Associated Press Writer Steve Karnowski contributed to this report from Minneapolis.

“The government does not require its loan servicers to tell a homeowner the specific reason why they have been denied a loan modification,” Ireland said. “Decisions are made under a cloak of secrecy and there is no formal way to challenge these decisions.”