US President-elect Barack Obama has described the country's economy as being in very bad shape and said it is getting worse.
Mr Obama told reporters that he expected that the latest US unemployment figures - due out later this week - would be sobering.
He was speaking after talks with politicians in Washington to discuss ways to boost the economy and generate new jobs.
Mr Obama wants the US Congress to approve an economic stimulus package worth hundreds of billions of dollars.
Although Senator Obama acknowledged the big economic stimulus bill - now put at as much as $775bn over two years - will not be waiting on his desk when he takes office on 20 January as he had wanted, some key Republicans were moving to his side.
'I think there will be widespread Republican enthusiasm for having a significant percentage of the package be tax relief,' Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell said after meeting with Sen Obama.
'We'll be interested to see not only the size of the tax package but how it's crafted,' he said. As Sen Obama proposed during the campaign, workers would get a $500 payroll tax credit and businesses would receive tax breaks to create jobs, part of what a senior Democratic aide said could be $300bn in tax cuts.
Republicans fear plan could top $1tn
Even with the tax cuts, Republicans, who are in the minority in both chambers, emphasised their concerns about the size, which they fretted could top $1tn.
'While we want to get the economy moving again, the overall size and how we craft this is going to be important,' said House Minority Leader John Boehner.
One Democratic House leadership aide said the goal is to pass a stimulus bill by the end of January, giving the Senate time to debate a measure that Sen Obama could sign into law by the start of the next congressional recess on 13 February.
'We anticipate that by the end of January or the first week in February we have gotten the bulk of this done,' Sen Obama said.
During his first visit to the US Capitol since he was elected on 4 November, Sen Obama met with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, a California Democrat, and said new jobs data this week would likely be sobering and underscore the need for action.
The current US recession began in December 2007 and, according to a Reuters poll, economists are expecting Labor Department data on Friday to show payroll jobs dropping by 500,000, bringing job losses for 2008 to about 2.5m.
Sen Obama takes office with the legislative numbers well on his side. The November elections gave Democrats a wider House majority and, with yesterday's declaration of Al Franken as the winner in the final disputed Senate race, they have 58 out of 100 seats.
Economic speech expected on Thursday
The president-elect's fundraising prowess was highlighted again in a new donor report that showed Sen Obama - who drew a record-shattering $639m during his presidential campaign - on track to raise $12m to cover transition costs.
But it was the push to rescue the economy that was the focus of Washington's attention.
An aide said that later this week, possibly on Thursday, Sen Obama is expected to give a speech to stress the urgency of the crisis and what is needed to respond to it, warning that the jobless rate was at risk of rising to 10% if action is not taken.
While some Democratic aides said Sen Obama was seeking an economic stimulus bill totalling $775bn over two years, House Appropriations Committee Chairman David Obey insisted there were no final decisions.
In an interview with Reuters, the Wisconsin Democrat said: 'I certainly don't regard any number as settled'. He added 'My fear at this point is that this package is going to be far smaller than it needs to be' to create enough jobs to turn the economy around.
60% of Sen Obama's plan would go to spending on such basics as roads, bridges, education and health care, with the remaining 40%, to woo Republican support, in tax cuts for the middle class and businesses, party aides said.
Republicans - who have objected to recent government moves to bail out the financial industry and US carmakers - are raising concerns that elements of Sen Obama's stimulus plan could grow into permanent expenditures instead of emergency relief.
But they are certain to face public pressure, in the wake of widespread repudiation of Republicans in the November elections, to find common ground with Sen Obama and clear the way for quick passage of a stimulus package.
