WASHINGTON, Aug 29: US President Barack Obama on Monday nominated Alan Krueger, a Princeton University expert on unemployment, as his top economic adviser as he plots an “urgent” new offensive on the jobs crisis.

Obama described Krueger as one of America's top economists who understood the challenges that country faces, with a recovery that has been, too, tepid to make significant cuts in an unemployment rate of 9.1 per cent.

Krueger, if confirmed by the Senate, will serve as chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers and succeed long-time Obama confidante Austan Goolsbee who left the administration to return to academia in Chicago.

Next week, the president will lay out a new plan to create jobs and slice into the deficit, projected to hit $1.6 trillion this year, which is certain to ignite a new political firestorm with Republicans.

“Our great economic challenge as a nation remains how to get this economy growing,” Obama said as he appeared with Krueger in the White House Rose Garden and previewed his big speech.

The president promised “steps that Congress can take immediately to put more money in the pockets of working class families and middle class families and to make it easier for small businesses to hire people.—AFP