WASHINGTON, July 30: The Republican-led House on Saturday rejected a Senate Democratic bill to raise the nation’s debt limit just three days before the deadline to avert a first-ever default on US financial obligations. President Barack Obama and lawmakers remained at an impasse on any possible compromise.

With tensions high at a rare weekend session, the legislation failed on a 246-173 House vote that was largely symbolic. The Senate has yet to vote on the bill.

Saturday’s result, however, could pave the way for negotiations on a compromise with the Tuesday deadline on the government’s ability to pay its bills fast approaching.

Shortly after the House vote, Mr Obama stepped back into the debt-ceiling talks, calling Congress’s top two Democrats, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, to the White House for a meeting.

Top congressional leaders and the White House now have little time to work out a deal that can pass both chambers of Congress and be signed by Mr Obama before a Tuesday deadline to avoid default.

“There is very little time,” Mr Obama said on Saturday in his weekly radio and Internet address. He called for an end to political gamesmanship, saying “the time for compromise on behalf of the American people is now”.

Tuesday is when the government says it will run out of money to meet its financial obligations. It needs Congress to approve an increase in its borrowing authority, known as the debt ceiling. Past increases have been routine,

but Republicans, citing the giant US deficit, have demanded huge spending cuts as a condition for approving the increase.

Democrats have agreed to major cuts, but are insisting that the debt issue be settled now and not come up again during the November 2012 elections to prevent another potential default crisis during the heat of the campaign. House Republicans want a short-term increase and another vote next year.

Setting the stage for the high-stakes weekend, Senate Democrats late on Friday killed a House-passed debt-limit increase and budget-cutting bill less than two hours after it squeaked through the House of Representatives. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid set up a test procedural vote for the wee hours of Sunday morning on his own legislation.

Mr Reid’s task was made more difficult after 43 Senate Republicans declared they would oppose his bill — enough to block it from coming to a final vote. Mr Reid’s measure would raise the debt limit by $2.4 trillion while cutting spending by $2.2 trillion.

In a letter to Mr Reid, the Republican senators said his bill “fails to address our current fiscal imbalance and lacks any serious effort to ensure that any subsequent spending cuts are enacted”. The 43 are enough to block passage of Mr Reid’s bill under Senate rules.

At the start of the Senate’s session on Saturday, Mr Reid appealed to Republicans to work with him on his proposal, particularly Minority Leader Mitch McConnell.

“We’re willing to listen to Republican ideas to make this proposal better, but time is running short,” Mr Reid said.

Mr McConnell said the Reid plan wasn’t “going anywhere.—AP