US President Barack Obama has made a public pitch for his economic stimulus plan, warning that delaying it further would lead to "deepening disaster".
President Barack Obama has urged Congress to pass his $800bn (£541) stimulus plan, warning that delaying it would worsen a "full-blown crisis".
Mr Obama was in Indiana - a state hit hard by the economic crisis - to give his first public speech on the plan.
In his first White House prime-time news conference, Mr Obama said only government could break the vicious cycle crippling the US jobs market.
The House of Representatives has approved the package. The Senate is expected to do so by Tuesday, but the proposal has met resistance.
He said his plan would create up to 4m jobs and help jump-start the economy.
Mr Obama is due to give his first White House prime-time news conference later.
The House of Representatives has already approved the plan and the Senate is due to vote later on Tuesday.
The president has been pushing hard for the approval of his plan, which is now worth more than $800bn (£541bn).
The version approved by the House of Representatives differs from that being discussed in the Senate, and the two chambers will have to agree on a single final version.
The Senate voted 61-36 on Monday to end its debate, paving the way for a final vote on the Senate's version of the bill on Tuesday.
'Delay and paralysis'
At the town hall-style meeting in Elkhart, Indiana, Mr Obama conceded that the stimulus plan was "not perfect" but insisted it could help create jobs and "jump-start" the economy. We can't posture and bicker and resort to the same failed ideas that got us in into this mess in the first place US President Barack Obama
"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 the White House prime-time news conference, Mr Obama will appear in Fort Myers, Florida, on Tuesday, and Peoria, Illinois, on Thursday.
Like Elkhart, they are cities that have been badly affected by the economic downturn.
A Gallup poll suggests 67% of Americans approve of the president's efforts to pass a stimulus package.
The same poll found much lower support for the two parties in Congress, with the Democrats receiving a 48% approval rating and the Republicans 31% for their handling of the situation.
Jobs push
Earlier Larry Summers, head of the White House's national economic council, used television interviews to argue for speedy approval.
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 differences over how to expand the federal medical programme, Medicaid, and on spending priorities.
While the House bill would give more money to schools, local governments and individual states, the Senate bill devotes more resources to tax cuts.
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.
