WASHINGTON, Feb 14: US President Barack Obama on Saturday hailed a 787-billion-dollar economic stimulus plan passed by Congress as a major milestone and promised to sign the bill into law shortly.

With the enormous package aimed at reviving a foundering US economy, creating millions of new jobs and stemming home foreclosures which helped spark the global financial meltdown last year, Obama claimed the biggest political victory yet of his nascent administration.

“This is a major milestone on our road to recovery, and I want to thank the members of Congress who came together in common purpose to make it happen,” Obama said in his weekly radio address.

The US Congress, handing President Barack Obama a major legislative victory, approved on Friday a $787 billion stimulus bill.

The Senate cast the final vote, 60-38, hours after the House of Representatives passed an identical bill, 246-183. The action capped weeks of arguing over how Congress could best stimulate an economy suffering a rising jobless rate of 7.6 per cent and a banking crisis that has nearly frozen lending.

“It will not fix our problems overnight,” Senate Appropriations Committee Chairman Daniel Inouye, a Hawaii Democrat, said shortly before the final vote began on the measure, closely watched by financial markets and governments around the world. But Inouye added: “It will begin the process ... it will give America confidence that we can overcome this crisis.”

The Senate voting was held open for several hours to await Ohio Democratic Senator Sherrod Brown’s arrival in Washington to cast the 60th vote needed for passage. The White House arranged for a government plane to fly him back from services for his late mother in Ohio.Democrats hope to save or create 3.5 million jobs by the move, fulfilling a pledge to try to reverse the economic slide with a recipe that includes middle-class tax cuts, money for construction projects, help for the poor and unemployed and new investments in alternative energy.

However, the Democratic president, in office only since Jan 20, failed in his efforts to win over Republicans, who are a minority in Congress. Not a single House Republican voted for one of the biggest single spending bills in the nation’s history and only three Republican senators backed it.

“I think we need to appreciate that the bill is the largest change in domestic policy since the 1930s,” said House Appropriations Committee Chairman David Obey, referring to heavy government investments.

Republicans argued unsuccessfully for less government spending and more tax cuts.—Agencies