US President Barack Obama has used his State of the Union speech to both Houses of Congress to urge the United States to launch a new era of investment in key technologies of the future.
However, he also proposed that the US government freezes annual domestic spending for the next five years.
Mr Obama also pledged to work with Republicans on concerns over recently passed healthcare legislation and called for more business support for efforts to reduce US dependence on fossil fuels.
He said there was an opportunity to create jobs in the industries of the future and said the US would have a million electric vehicles on the road by 2015.
Mr Obama came to an altered chamber to make his ceremonial address.
It has been changed by the increasing number of Republicans elected last year, and shocked by the assassination attempt on Democratic Congresswoman Gabriel Giffords, whose seat was conspicuously left empty in front of Mr Obama.
His address concentrated on domestic issues. Mr Obama said the US faced what he called a ‘sputnik’ moment - a key time when it had fallen behind but still had to embrace a new era of investment in emerging technologies.
He promised painful cuts in other areas of public spending so that America could afford the bill for that investment.
He offered crumbs of comfort to Republicans, nodded in the direction of the ‘Tea Party’ movement and made important commitments to his own Democratic Party members.
There was no reference to the international financial problems and only passing comment on the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.
With Republicans now forming a majority in the House of Representatives, Mr Obama said he was committed to bipartisan co-operation on political issues.
He said this was essential if the US was to meet the challenges ahead.
