Obama calls for U.S. bipartisan agreement on jobs, deficit

WASHINGTON, Feb. 9 (Xinhua) -- U.S. President Barack Obama Tuesday urged both Democratic and Republican lawmakers to approve a jobs bill and take actions to reduce the deficit.

"As I said in my State of the Union, part of what we'd like to see is the ability of Congress to move forward in a more bipartisan fashion on some of the key challenges that the country is facing right now," said Obama at an unscheduled appearance at the daily White House briefing.

He noted that the American people "are frustrated with the lack of progress on some key issues," referring to bills to create more jobs and reduce the deficit.

"A good place to start, and what I hope to spend a lot of time on in these discussions today, is how we can move forward on a jobs package that encourages small business to hire," said the president after meeting with congressional leaders of both parties.

"Another area where I hope we can find some agreement is on the issue of getting our deficits and debt under control," said Obama. "Both parties have stated their concerns about it. I think both parties recognize that it's going to take a lot of work."

Obama said he had put forward the idea of a bipartisan fiscal commission.

"I'm going to be discussing both with my Democratic and Republican colleagues how we can get that moving as quickly as possible so that we can start taking some concrete action," said Obama.

"I think the American people want to see that concrete action," he added.