●Obama, U.S. lawmakers to continue debt talks on Monday CCTV_自考专本|专升本|高升专|高升本|在职研究生-学历教育网

WASHINGTON, July 10 (Xinhua) -- U.S. President Barack Obama and a group of top lawmakers will meet again on Monday to continue their talks on lifting U.S. debt limit and cutting deficit to avert a looming default, according to the White House on Sunday.本科

With an Aug. 2 deadline of debt ceiling closing in, Obama hosted Congressional leaders for the third time at the White House Sunday to negotiate on the widely-scrutinized topic. But there is still no deal reached.

U.S. Treasury warned that the federal government is at risk of default on its financial obligations if the Congress does not lift the debt ceiling, the limit of government borrowing.

The borrowing limit, currently at 14.29 trillion, was reached on May 16 this year. U.S. Treasury Department said the country would default without an agreement to lift the limit by Aug. 2.

Republicans have refused to discuss any debt-reduction deal that includes higher taxes, while Democrats have rejected any deal based solely on spending cuts.

Obama said the country's critical debt challenge should be addressed, but needed to be done in a "balanced approach."

He offered a 4-trillion-dollar deficit reduction deal including certain tax increase to add revenue and spending cut on social welfare programs. However, U.S. House Speaker John Boehner on Saturday rejected the deal, insisting on no higher taxes on all Americans, including the rich. He told Obama he would only pursue a smaller 2 trillion dollars package.

Economists warned that a U.S. default would cause global repercussions.

A default "would certainly jeopardize... not just the stability of the U.S. economy, it would jeopardize the stability at large," new International Monetary Fund chief Christine Lagarde warned Sunday.

Obama said on Saturday that although deep gap remains between the two parties, both sides agreed that "we simply cannot afford to default on our national obligations for the first time in our history."

When answering a question of whether the two parties will reach a deal in the next 10 days to prevent the world's largest economy from defaulting on its debt obligations, Obama on Sunday replied: "We need to."

Analysts say that negotiators for both parties want to show their restless rank-and-file that they fought until the last minute.