LOC00:00
21:00 GMT
WASHINGTON, July 7 (KUNA) -- U.S. President Barack Obama affirmed here
Thursday that his meeting with the congressional leaders to discuss status
efforts to find a balanced approach to deficit reduction was "very
constructive".
Obama said in remarks following the meeting that "everybody reconfirmed the
importance of completing our work and raising the debt limit ceiling so that
the full faith and credit of the United States of America is not impaired".
He announced that he will reconvene congressional leaders here on Sunday
"with the expectation that, at that point, the parties will at least know
where each other's bottom lines are and will hopefully be in a position to
then start engaging in the hard bargaining that's necessary to get a deal
done".
"I want to emphasize that nothing is agreed to until everything is agreed
to. And the parties are still far apart on a wide range of issues," he
remarked.
He stressed that "everybody acknowledged that we have to get this done
before the hard deadline of August 2nd to make sure that America does not
default for the first time on its obligations".
"I want to thank all the leaders. I thought it was a very constructive
meeting. And I will be seeing them back here on Sunday. A lot of work will be
done between now and then," Obama remarked. (end)
si.gb
KUNA 080000 Jul 11NNNN