WASHINGTON: The spending cut pact that stopped a US government shutdown may not make Barack Obama and John Boehner friends, but their relationship improved in ways that could help them mould compromises in battles to come.

The US president, a Democrat, and the speaker of the House of Representatives, a Republican, have never had a close bond — and supporters from their respective parties probably prefer it that way.

Despite their differences, however, both men showed a common desire to avoid having the government close down, and their ability to forge a deal may bode well for future agreements on the 2012 budget, the debt ceiling and deficit.

After Republicans won control of the House in November congressional elections, Obama pledged to work harder to reach out to the opposition party.

Critics say he got off to a slow start building bridges in the fiscal 2011 budget debate but, late or not, came on strong on Tuesday, calling Boehner and Democratic Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid to the first of several White House meetings.

At one of those sit-downs on Wednesday night, after the president had returned from a campaign-style event in New York, they pored over print-outs of the so-called “policy riders” that would have denied funding to programs such as Obama’s healthcare reform law and greenhouse gas regulation.

“The speaker chided us about maybe we wanted to find a faster copy machine,” said one official present for the meeting in the Oval Office, describing a long wait while a White House official made copies of the documents.

“The president said we were doing it on mimeograph.”

That levity was missing during a morning call two days later when the president told Boehner an agreement reached between them on the scope and make-up of spending cuts was not being reflected in lower level talks among staff.

“The president called Speaker Boehner ... and said, ‘you know, I’m the president of the United States, you’re the speaker of the House.

“We are the two most consequential leaders in the United States government,’” one administration official told reporters.—Reuters