US President Barack Obama took the sales pitch for his newly unveiled jobs plan on the road today, venturing out of Washington and into the home turf of one of his top Republican antagonists.

Key lawmakers who struck a post-midnight deal on a 700bn (€479bn) for the financial industry tonight predicted it would pass Congress, putting in place the largest US government intervention in markets since the Great Depression of the 1930s.

George Bush and the House of Representatives’ Speaker-in waiting Nancy Pelosi pledged over lunch to stop squabbling and cooperate.

Thousands of weapons the United States has provided Iraqi security forces cannot be accounted for, a new report to Congress says.

Americans are expecting more shocking photographs and searing public debate as the Bush administration works to calm the storm over US soldiers’ abuse of Iraqi prisoners.