国际英语新闻:Obama calls for ending govt spending cuts to grow economy

WASHINGTON, March 9 (Xinhua) -- One week after the federal government spending cuts took effect, U.S. President Barack Obama on Saturday called on Congress to end the spending cuts to bolster the country's economic growth and job creation.

"We learned that our businesses added nearly 250,000 new jobs last month. The unemployment rate fell to 7.7 percent, still too high, but now lower than it was when I took office," Obama said in his weekly address.

U.S. unemployment rate edged down 0.2 percentage point to 7.7 percent, the lowest since December 2008, but governments of all levels slashed 10,000 posts in February due to government outlays cuts, U.S. Labor Department reported on Friday.

"Our businesses have created jobs every month for three years straight - nearly 6.4 million new jobs in all. Our manufacturers are bringing jobs back to America. Our stock market has rebounded. New homes are being built and sold at a faster pace. And we need to do everything we can to keep that momentum going," Obama said.

"At a time when our businesses are gaining a little more traction, the last thing we should do is allow Washington politics to get in the way," he noted.

Obama has reached out to Republicans earlier this week to find smarter ways to grow U.S. economy and reduce the government's budget deficits than the arbitrary spending cuts.

Roughly 85 billion U.S. dollars of spending cuts started to hit various governmental departments this year starting on March 1, as agreed by Democrats and Republicans in January to resolve the so- called "fiscal cliff".

"I'll keep fighting to solve the real challenges facing middle- class families," Obama stressed.