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White House warns of shutdown

Washington - The White House on Wednesday said that around 800 000 federal employees would be told not to go work and military personnel would miss paychecks if a budget row causes a government shutdown.

National parks would also be closed and Washington's annual cherry blossom festival this weekend would also be cancelled, officials said, as pressure mounted before a midnight Friday deadline to fund the vast US government.

President Barack Obama, meanwhile, called Republican House of Representatives Speaker John Boehner to talk about prospects for a deal which would lock in a figure for sweeping budget cuts and identify which programs would be cut.

"The speaker reiterated that the House's goal is to prevent a government shutdown and make real cuts in spending," said a statement from Boehner's office about the three minute call.

"He told the president he remains hopeful a deal can be reached and that talks would continue," a Boehner aide said, ahead of what could be a crucial meeting of the House Republican conference later on Wednesday.

Boehner, who came to power as speaker after the Republican mid-term election victory last November, is under intense pressure from conservative members of his own restive Republican caucus not to compromise with Democrats.

Many new Republicans campaigned on a platform of slashing government spending in the name of cutting a deficit predicted to hit $1.5 trillion this year, according to Congressional Budget Office estimates.

Obama later headed off on a trip to Philadelphia and New York scheduled to take up the rest of Wednesday which would leave him no time for any face-to-face talks with key players in the budget wrangle.

No paychecks

A senior administration official, meanwhile, told reporters that the number of government workers impacted by a shutdown would be around 800 000, and repeated warnings that the slowly mending US economy would also suffer.

 The official said military personnel would continue to earn their salaries, but would not actually receive paychecks for the duration of any shutdown.

 "They will continue to earn money during this period of time but given that we don't have any money, they will not receive paychecks until Congress appropriates," a senior administration official told reporters.

"They will be paid once we have money to pay them."

Republicans and Democrats have been feuding over a measure to fund the government for the rest of the fiscal year while making deep spending cuts to a range of domestic and foreign aid programs.

A current stopgap spending measure runs out at midnight on Friday.

Democrats complained on Wednesday that Boehner had broken an agreement in principle to cut $33bn and was now seeking $40bn, while the speaker's office denied there had ever been a deal on the first figure.

"Every time we agree to meet in the middle, they move where the middle is," said the top Senate Democrat Harry Reid.

"The speaker has a choice to make, and not much time to make it. He can either do what the Tea Party wants or what the country needs."

Shutdowns have unpredictable political consequences and Obama and his Republican foes are playing a high-stakes game with uncertain results.

The last major US government shutdown caused by a political row, in 1995, helped reinvigorate the fortunes of then Democratic president Bill Clinton who was locked in a fierce showdown with a conservative Republican Congress.
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