Obama unveils $450bn job plan

In a rare address to a joint session of Congress, he said he wanted to get the unemployed back to work, put money in employees' pockets and rebuild infrastructure.

He urged lawmakers to pass the plan, worth almost $450bn (£282bn), promptly.

Some Republican opponents have said the bill is Obama's re-election plan.

US unemployment, currently jammed at 9.1%, is expected to dominate the 2012 presidential election campaign.

"There should be nothing controversial about this piece of legislation. Everything in here is the kind of proposal that's been supported by both Democrats and Republicans - including many who sit here tonight. And everything in this bill will be paid for. Everything” Obama said.

"The purpose of the American Jobs Act is simple: to put more people back to work and more money in the pockets of those who are working. It will create more jobs for construction workers, more jobs for teachers, more jobs for veterans, and more jobs for the long-term unemployed.

"It will provide a tax break for companies who hire new workers, and it will cut payroll taxes in half for every working American and every small business."

The president also said the proposals would help to further develop "a world-class transportation system" in the US and "repair and modernise at least 35,000 schools".

He pledged to urgently cut red tape, saying that "so far we've identified over 500 reforms, which will save billions of dollars over the next few years".

Obama also stressed that "a week from Monday, I'll be releasing a more ambitious deficit plan - a plan that will not only cover the cost of this jobs bill, but stabilise our debt in the long run".

He said he was willing to work on fine-turning the plans with his political opponents, but warned that he would not allow "this economic crisis (to) be used as an excuse to wipe out the basic protections that Americans have counted on for decades".

The president wants to submit the bill to Congress next week.

John Boehner, the Republican speaker of the House of Representatives, said Obama's proposals "merit consideration", expressing hopes that Democrats and Republicans could work together on the bill.

But Obama's speech did not go down well with many of his political opponents.

House Representative Paul Broun of Georgia, one of the Republicans who chose not to attend the speech, tweeted: "This is obviously political grandstanding and class warfare."

Other critics say that the presidential speech lacked details.

After the summer's bitter partisan warfare over the country's debt levels, which prompted a historic US government credit downgrade, the president's approval numbers are sagging badly, though poll ratings for Congress have been even lower.