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President Barack Obama Thursday challenged Republicans in Congress to halt a "political circus" and immediately pass a jobs plan expected to top $400 billion to revive the stagnant economy.

Obama, seeking to restore public trust in his economic management and take aim at 9.1 percent unemployment which has derailed the recovery, was due to unveil the plan in the pageantry of a joint address to Congress at 2300 GMT.

"The people of this country work hard to meet their responsibilities, the question tonight is whether we'll meet ours," Obama said in excerpts of his remarks released by the White House.

"The question is whether, in the face of an ongoing national crisis, we can stop the political circus and actually do something to help the economy."

The centerpiece of Obama's plan is expected to be an extension to a payroll tax cut designed to keep money in the pockets of those most in need, and most likely to spend extra cash to spur demand.

Obama said the plan, called the American Jobs Act, would put people back to work and more money in the pockets of those who are working.

"It will create more jobs for construction workers, more jobs for teachers, more jobs for veterans, and more jobs for the long-term unemployed," he was to say.

"It will provide a tax break for companies who hire new workers, and it will cut payroll taxes in half for every working American and every small business.

"You should pass this jobs plan right away," Obama was to tell lawmakers.

The plan was expected to lay out a plan for middle class tax cuts, infrastructure spending and help for the long-term unemployed in a bid to ensure that a slump in demand does not cause a slip back into recession.

The speech may represent Obama's last chance to reignite slowed growth and make a dent in high unemployment before 2012, when he will ask voters for a second term in a still tough economic environment.

Hopes for renewed economic demand also got a boost on Thursday when Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke said the central bank was ready to employ various tools to provide an additional monetary stimulus.

But prospects for Obama's plan are uncertain, given blanket Republican opposition to new spending not balanced by steep budget cuts and a deeply polarized political climate already agitated by the coming election.

The White House has declined to put a dollar figure on the jobs plan, but media reports suggest it could top $400 billion.

Obama could seek to finance the plan by raising taxes on the wealthiest Americans or closing corporate tax loopholes, a strategy which has already failed. Spending cuts in future years could also be used to ensure a stimulatory impact.

He will likely ask a congressional supercommittee which met for the first time Thursday and is mandated to cut spending by $1.5 trillion to seek further budget cuts to offset the new spending.

The White House believes the speech will allow Obama to reset the political battleground and senses that Republicans are feeling political heat from their own unpopularity after a showdown over raising US government borrowing in July.

Obama will channel the frustration of Americans who have yet to feel the impact of the limp recovery following the worst recession since the 1930s to press for urgent action, Democrats familiar with his plan said.

He has also warned that if the plan is blocked, he will seek to hold Republicans to account at the polls and accuse them of putting a desire to eject him from the White House above a patriotic duty to revive the economy.

Republicans however dispute Obama's claim that political gamesmanship is thwarting his plans to create jobs and revive the economy, arguing that the evidence of the last two years shows simply that his policies are a bust.

"There's a much simpler reason to oppose the president's economic policies that has nothing whatsoever to do with politics: they don't work," said Republican Senate minority leader Mitch McConnell on Thursday.

"This isn't a jobs plan. It's a re-election plan. That's why Republicans will continue to press for policies that empower job creators, not Washington."

John Boehner, speaker of the Republican-led House of Representatives where the fate of Obama's plan will be decided, hoped for "common ground" with the president but did not say if he would back the plan.

Boehner also rebuked several lawmakers from his party who have decided to boycott Obama's speech, which takes place just before the season opening NFL football game, saying "we ought to be respectful, we ought to welcome him."

A Wall Street Journal poll this week put Obama's approval rating at just 44 percent, with only 37 percent of those asked satisfied with his management of the economy.

AFP