President Barack Obama, aiming to break an impasse in crisis talks on US debt, declared himself ready yesterday to pay the political price of a painful compromise and pressed his Republican foes to do the same.

“I do not see a path to a deal if they don’t budge, period,” Mr Obama warned at a press conference in the White House with time slipping away before an August 2 deadline to avert a US debt default that could send shockwaves through the US economy.

The President, whose 2012 re-election bid hinges largely on his handling of the fragile the US economy, vowed to push “for the largest possible deal” to close the yawning US deficit while raising Washington’s ability to borrow.

Mr Obama noted “resistance” from fellow Democrats on possible cuts to cherished social safety net programmes and opposition from Republican rank-and-file to possible tax hikes on the wealthiest US earners and rich corporations.

“But if each side takes a maximalist position, if each side wants 100 percent of what its, you know, ideological predispositions are, then we can’t get anything done,” he warned.

“We’re going to meet every single day until we get this thing resolved,” he told reporters, “We still have a lot of work to do, though, to get this problem solved.” Mr Obama, who has pressed for an agreement by July 22 to give lawmakers time to approve it by an August 2 deadline, ruled out a “temporary stopgap resolution to this problem.” And asked directly whether the seemingly deadlocked talks would reach a compromise, averting a historic debt payment default, Obama replied: “We are going to get this done by August 2nd.”

Republicans have balked at a Democratic push to raise taxes on the richest US earners and wealthy corporations as part of any plan to slice deep into government spending, saying doing so would smother job growth. Democrats have vowed to defend cherished social safety net programmes like the Medicare health insurance for the elderly and disabled as well as Social Security retirement payments. Mr Obama met on Sunday evening with congressional leaders, including Republican House Speaker John Boehner, but 75 minutes of talks failed to unblock an impasse that reaches right to the heart of America’s ideological divide.