President Joe Biden and top Republican Kevin McCarthy have spoken on the phone, in a change of tone in stalled talks on lifting the US debt ceiling.
Mr McCarthy said his call with Mr Biden, who was returning from the G7 summit in Japan, had been “productive” and the two would meet on Monday.
The two sides remain at odds over budget cuts demanded by the Republicans as a condition for raising the ceiling.
Failure to do so by June could result in the US defaulting on its debt.
That would mean the federal government could not borrow more money or pay all its bills. The Treasury Department has warned that a default could begin on 1 June.
Such an outcome would cause chaos in financial markets and lead to further rises in interest rates.
As he left Japan on Sunday, Mr Biden told reporters that proposals by Republicans – who control the House of Representatives – were “simply, quite frankly, unacceptable”.
He added: “It’s time for Republicans to accept that there is no bipartisan deal to…
This article was written by and originally published on www.bbc.co.uk