Obama: No deal on US debt ceiling

Barack Obama hailed the last-minute deal that pulled America back from the “fiscal cliff”, but warned that he “will not compromise” over his insistence that Congress lift the government debt ceiling.

The president said in his radio and internet address that the fiscal cliff deal, approved by Congress late on New Year’s Day and signed on Thursday, raises tax on the wealthiest Americans while preventing a middle-class tax increase that could have thrown the economy back into recession.