US President Barack Obama will meet with leading lawmakers from both political parties on Friday to discuss 85 billion dollars in spending cuts that will go into effect on that same day, the White House said.
It would be the first face-to-face meeting at the White House to try to avert the cuts, which Obama has warned will have a dire impact on the economy. His position has put him in conflict with the Republican-controlled House of Representatives. Obama has warned the cuts would threaten crucial government programmes, including the military and education.
Both Obama's Democratic Party and the Republican Party have blamed each other for the cuts, which were forged as part of a compromise designed to force agreement on less drastic deficit reduction measures.
Obama has called for replacing the cuts with a package that would tighten taxes on the wealthy, while Republicans maintain that they already agreed to one round of tax hikes earlier this year and the focus must now be on trimming spending.
A package of automatic budget cuts passed in August 2011 was intended to pressure lawmakers to forge 10-year deficit reductions worth 1.2 trillion dollars.