财政悬崖逼近之际，奥巴马将返回华盛顿

U.S. President Barack Obama is cutting short his vacation in ((the Pacific state of)) Hawaii and will return to Washington to resume talks with congressional leaders aimed at reaching agreement on a deficit reduction package before the year ends.

The White House says Mr. Obama will leave Wednesday and is expected to arrive back in Washington early Thursday.

Early last week, the president said he and Republican House Speaker John Boehner were relatively close to an agreement on a compromise to avert what is being called a "fiscal cliff" -- $500 billion in mandated spending cuts and tax increases that would affect almost all American workers starting January 1. But by the end of last week, those efforts were in disarray as lawmakers fled Washington for their Christmas holiday break.

白宫说，奥巴马将于星期三离开夏威夷，预计他将在星期四清晨返回华盛顿。

上星期初，奥巴马表示他和贝纳已经相对接近于就避免财政悬崖的妥协方案达成协议。所谓“财政悬崖”，就是从明年１月１日启动的削减５千亿美元开支以及对几乎所有美国工作人员增税。但截至上周末，由于国会议员们因圣诞度假而离开华盛顿，有关努力都没有结果。