Senate leaders took command of efforts to avert a US Treasury default and end the partial government shutdown last night after a last big effort by Republicans abruptly collapsed.

Republicans are offering to pass legislation to avert a debt default and end the partial government shutdown as part of a package that includes cuts in benefit programmes, officials in the House of Representatives say.

The US political stalemate in Congress is showing no signs of easing, leaving government services from informational websites, to international war graves, closed.

The White House and US Senate Republicans sorted through disputes over taxing the wealthy and cutting the Defence Department and other federal agencies as tonight’s midnight deadline for avoiding a “fiscal cliff” drew to within hours.

US President Barack Obama, pushing for a deal to avoid the looming tax hikes and spending cuts known as the “fiscal cliff”, entered last-minute talks with US Senate leaders saying he still believed an agreement could be reached before the January 1 deadline.

President Barack Obama has asked congressional leaders to convene today at the White House for last-minute talks on a “fiscal cliff” deal that avoids automatic tax increases and broad spending cuts that threaten the economy’s nascent recovery.

The make-up of Congress is unlikely to be changed by the election which is expected to leave Republicans in control of the House of Representatives and Democrats keeping their majority in the Senate.

THE SENATE emphatically passed emergency legislation yesterday to avoid a first-ever government default, rushing the legislation to President Barack Obama for his signature just hours before the deadline. The vote was 74-26.

DEMOCRATS in the US House of Representatives might decide not to support a last-minute deal to raise the debt ceiling when they meet today, House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi said last night.

US PRESIDENT Barack Obama warned yesterday that polarised lawmakers were “almost out of time” to forge a deal averting a disastrous debt default that could send shockwaves though the world economy.

Republican leaders in the House of Representatives, facing a conservative revolt, put off a vote on a bill to increase the government’s debt limit, cut federal spending and avoid a potential US default.

US president Barack Obama has said he remains confident that a government shutdown can be avoided this weekend if negotiators can build on constructive talks over a public spending impasse.

CHINESE President Hu Jintao heard concerns about China’s human rights and economic policies as he wrapped up his visit to Washington with meetings on Capitol Hill.

US President Barack Obama’s Democrats are braced for an elections rout today, as a wave of 11th-hour polls showed Republicans on course for big gains in Congress amid deep voter anger at the sour economy.

A spokesman for US Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid said the bill making changes in President Barack Obama’s newly enacted health care overhaul will have to go back to the House for final congressional approval, something top Democrats were trying to avoid.

The US Senate has passed President Barack Obama’s landmark healthcare overhaul in a climactic Christmas Eve vote, extending medical insurance to 30 million Americans.

WITH support from a lone Republican, a key Senate committee yesterday approved a middle-of-the-road healthcare plan that moves President Barack Obama’s goal of wider and affordable coverage a giant step closer to becoming law.

Democratic leaders are urging a quick end to the nomination fight between Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama, fearing their protracted campaigns are harming the party.

Congressional Democrats and President George Bush’s top aides are entering another round of high-stakes negotiations on funding for the Iraq war in what has become an exhaustive test of wills.

US President George Bush today expressed frustration with the US congressional debate on Iraq war spending and accused majority-party Democrats of being “more interested in fighting political battles in Washington than providing our troops what they need.”

Tired of waiting for an opportunity to try to stop the war in Iraq, some US Democrats say they want to use legislation approving billions of dollars in war spending to insist that President George Bush not send more troops.

The 110th US Congress convened today with Democrats in control of both the House of Representatives and Senate for the first time in a dozen years.

Democrats in the House of Representatives defied newly elected Speaker-to-be Nancy Pelosi today by ignoring her recommendation and selecting Rep Steny Hoyer as Pelosi’s top lieutenant.

Democrats won control of the US House of Representatives early today after a dozen years of Republican rule in a resounding repudiation of a war, a president and a scandal-scarred Congress.

As the first polls closed in the US elections, Republican Harold Rogers and Democrat Ben Chandler easily won re-election in Kentucky to the House of Represntatives.

The US Senate today narrowly blocked a Republican plan to tap into the nation’s largest untapped reservoir of oil beneath the frozen tundra of an Alaska wildlife refuge.

President George Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney should apologise for the possible involvement of their aides in the alleged illegal disclosure of a CIA undercover agent’s identity, Senate Democratic leader Harry Reid said today.

Some Iraqis sympathised with US forces today after hearing the American death toll in the Iraq war had reached 2,000.

President George Bush and Congress today pledged separate investigations into the widely criticised federal response to Hurricane Katrina.

US PRESIDENT George W Bush is gearing up for a battle to get his conservative nominee into the Supreme Court.

In defiance of a presidential veto threat, US senators who support embryonic stem cell research are pushing for a quick vote on a bill passed by the House that would lift restrictions on such studies.

Ricin was sent to the White House in November, it was disclosed today – two days after the deadly poison was found in a Senate post room.

THE White House yesterday opposed an alternative congressional resolution authorising force against Iraq, saying it does too little to disarm President Saddam Hussein.

The Bush administration has stepped up pressure for a new UN Security Council disarmament resolution for Iraq and disclosed plans for moving B-2 bombers closer to Baghdad, preparing for possible war to remove President Saddam Hussein.

Anthrax has been posted to a second US senator the FBI have confirmed.

The US is to call up more reserve troops to fight terrorism than orginally thought.

Three letters contaminated with anthrax all were dated September 11, the same day as the terrorist attacks on New York and Washington, and contained anti-American and anti-Israel messages, US officials said.

Thirty-one employees of the US Senate tested positive for exposure to a highly concentrated form of anthrax, officials said, prompting congressional leaders to order an unprecedented shutdown of some of their offices.

The United States can expect a scientific exodus to Britain if Congress succeeds in criminalising ‘‘therapeutic’’ human cloning for medical purposes, biotechnology executives say.