Obama warning on stimulus delay

Mr Obama was giving his first public speech on the plan in Indiana, a state hit hard by the economic crisis.

The House of Representatives has approved the plan. The Senate is expected to do so by Tuesday, but the proposal has met resistance.

Mr Obama is due to give his first presidential news conference later.

The president has been pushing hard for the speedy approval of his plan, which is worth more than $800bn (£541bn).

The version approved by the House of Representatives now differs from that being discussed in the Senate, and the two chambers will have to agree on a single final version.

‘Delay and paralysis’

At the town hall-style meeting in Elkhart, Indiana, Mr Obama said the stimulus plan could help create jobs and "jump-start" the economy.

"I can’t tell you with 100% certainty that every single item in this plan will work exactly as we hoped," he said.

"But what I can tell you is… that endless delay and paralysis in Washington, in the face of this crisis, will only bring deepening disaster."

"We can’t posture and bicker and resort to the same failed ideas that got us in into this mess in the first place."

After returning to Washington for a White House primetime press conference, Mr Obama will appear in Fort Myers, Florida, on Tuesday.

Jobs push

Earlier Larry Summers, head of the White House’s national economic council, used television interviews to remind politicians of the need for haste.

Speaking on ABC’s This Week programme, Mr Summers said: "The most important thing is that people come together and create the three to four million jobs."

He added that there was "90% overlap" between the two versions of the bill now in Congress, and "we’ve got to get closure on the last 10%".

"There are certainly good ideas in both versions and we’ll have to draw from those ideas in creating an ultimate vehicle," he said.

The House and Senate measures are largely similar, but there are some differences over how to expand the federal medical assistance programme, Medicaid, and over certain tax issues.

US lawmakers will have to combine the two bills and have a finished version ready by the president’s deadline of 16 February.

"There are respects in which both bills can surely be improved," said Mr Summers.

The former Treasury secretary added that a "large, forthright" approach was needed, with more support for education from state and local governments to ward off a potentially downward spiral.

New US employment figures were released on Friday showing that nearly 600,000 jobs were lost in January, pushing the unemployment rate to 7.6% – its highest in 17 years.