WASHINGTON/TEHRAN (Reuters) – President Barack Obama said on Tuesday the international community was moving “fairly quickly” toward imposing broader sanctions on Iran, as the Islamic Republic defiantly expanded its nuclear program.

Obama said Iran’s refusal to accept a U.N.-brokered atomic fuel swap deal suggested it was intent on trying to build nuclear weapons, despite its insistence that its nuclear program was only for the peaceful generation of electricity.

Obama came into office vowing to break with the Bush administration’s policy of seeking to isolate Iran. But he has taken a tougher stance since disputed elections there last June and the passing of his December deadline for Tehran to accept the deal proposed by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), the U.N. nuclear watchdog.

Iran defied international pressure by announcing over the weekend that it would enrich uranium to 20 percent purity for a reactor making isotopes for cancer patients. Iran on Tuesday announced the work had begun.

Obama said the door was still open for Iran to enter into negotiations with major powers on its nuclear program. But he made clear the United States was now focused on sanctions.

“What we are going to be working on over the next several weeks is developing a significant regime of sanctions that will indicate to them how isolated they are from the international community as a whole,” Obama told reporters in Washington.

“It’s moving along fairly quickly,” Obama said when asked about how quickly the sanctions effort was proceeding.

LANHAM, Md, Feb 5 (Reuters) – President Barack Obama, looking for ways to drive down high U.S. unemployment in an election year, on Friday proposed to expand credit for small businesses and urged Congress pass laws to boost jobs.

“What I hope — what I strongly urge — is that we work quickly and we work together to get this done. America’s small businesses are counting on us,” Obama told a gathering of small business owners near Washington.

Obama proposed Congress temporarily expand credit through two Small Business Administration programs, the latest in a series of White House efforts to improve the flow of credit to small businesses, which are a core source of new U.S. jobs.

His plan could become part of fresh legislation to aid U.S. employment percolating in Congress — on top of a $787 billion stimulus package that Obama signed in February 2009. Or lawmakers could opt to go with their own ideas.

The U.S. Senate will begin debate next week on a series of bills to boost employment. The House of Representatives already passed a $155 billion jobs package in December.

U.S. unemployment dipped to 9.7 percent in January, the lowest reading since September 2009, but the economy still shed another 20,000 jobs and Obama said these somewhat mixed numbers “are a cause for hope but not celebration.” [ID:nN04115255]

U.S. growth jumped at a 5.7 percent annual pace in the fourth quarter but the recovery is still fragile. As a result, the White House wants to continue to stimulate activity with fiscal policy and prevent a double-dip recession.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – President Barack Obama pressed Democratic lawmakers on Wednesday to redouble their efforts to pass healthcare and financial regulatory reforms, telling them “our mission is far from accomplished.”

“We’ve got to finish the job on healthcare. We’ve got to finish the job on financial regulatory reform,” he told Senate Democrats in Washington.

Obama did not elaborate on how Democrats, who control both houses of the U.S. Congress, could overcome the loss of a key 60th Senate seat in an election in Massachusetts last month that has complicated his legislative agenda.

The S&P 500 index fell after a two-day rally, as Obama’s comments weighed on financial and healthcare stocks.

“Political factors are definitely putting a cloud over the market again and is probably going to put a lid to a rally for a while, until we get some clarity on these reforms,” said Scott Marcouiller, senior equity market strategist at Wells Fargo in St. Louis.

It was the first time Obama had spoken directly to members of the Democratic caucus since the Massachusetts defeat.

FOCUSING ON JOBS

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – President Barack Obama’s new budget, to be unveiled on Monday, is likely to prompt a fresh round of finger-pointing between Democrats and Republicans over who is to blame for the huge U.S. deficit.

A congressional source told Reuters that the White House would project a record $1.6 trillion deficit for the United States in the current 2010 fiscal year that ends September 30. That is an increase from the $1.4 trillion gap in 2009.

The budget is due out at 10 a.m. EST.

HOW BIG AN ISSUE WILL DEFICIT BE IN ELECTIONS?

Democrats and Republicans will do their best to minimize their contact with this political hot potato, so they don’t get burned in the November congressional elections, which could potentially alter the balance of power on Capitol Hill.

Expect to see the blame game intensify as both parties try to persuade voters that the other side is responsible for the deficit, while portraying themselves as fiscally prudent.

Voters had a preview last week when Obama clashed with Republican lawmakers, who told him he had tripled the national debt with his last budget. Obama testily pushed back, pointing out that he had inherited a huge deficit when he took office.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – President Barack Obama renewed his pledge on Saturday to make job creation his top priority in 2010 but said it was also critical to rein in a record budget deficit that threatened an economic recovery.

Obama used his weekly radio and Internet address to remind Americans of the various proposals he put forward in the last week to spur job growth and tame a $1.4 trillion deficit.

But before the release on Monday of his proposed budget for fiscal 2011, which begins on October 1, he put a clear emphasis on addressing the deficit problem.

“As we work to create jobs, it is critical that we rein in the budget deficits we’ve been accumulating for far too long — deficits that won’t just burden our children and grandchildren, but could damage our markets, drive up our interest rates, and jeopardize our recovery right now,” he said.

The White House has said Obama is still committed to a promise he made last year to halve the deficit by the end of his term in 2013. The president did not refer to that pledge in his address.

He has said his next budget will include a three-year spending freeze on some domestic programs.

“We’ll launch an unprecedented effort to root out waste, inefficiency, and unnecessary spending in our government, and every American will be able to see how and where we spend taxpayer dollars,” Obama said.

WASHINGTON, Jan 30 (Reuters) – U.S. President Barack Obama renewed his pledge on Saturday to make job creation his top priority in 2010 but said it was also critical to rein in a record budget deficit that threatened economic recovery.

Obama used his weekly radio and Internet address to remind Americans of the various proposals he put forward in the last week to spur job growth and tame a $1.4 trillion deficit.

The White House has said Obama is still committed to a promise he made last year to halve the deficit by the end of his term in 2013.

But in his radio address on Saturday, he talked only of “reining” in the deficit.

Obama is due on Monday to unveil his proposed budget for fiscal 2011 that begins Oct. 1, and has said it will include a three-year spending freeze on some domestic programs.

A Pew Research Center study published this week showed 60 percent of those polled viewed reducing the budget deficit as a top priority for 2010, up from 53 percent in 2009.

Obama acknowledged these concerns in his address.

TAMPA, Florida (Reuters) – President Barack Obama vowed on Thursday he would not rest until U.S. businesses were hiring again, as he took his recast agenda on the road and sought to dig out of his deepest political rut since taking office.

The day after a State of the Union address in which he tried to reconnect with the public with a hard focus on the economy, Obama went to Florida where he unveiled $8 billion in grants for high-speed rail projects the White House says will create employment and transform U.S. train travel.

With his poll numbers down and his presidency faltering after his first year, Obama told a friendly audience at a townhall-style meeting that he understood the economic pain they were feeling because of double-digit unemployment.

Underscoring the message delivered in his State of the Union speech, he said jobs growth would be his top priority.

“We’re not going to rest until we’ve rebuilt an economy in which hard work and responsibility are rewarded and businesses are hiring again and wages are growing again and the middle class can get its legs underneath it again,” Obama said at the University of Tampa.

Giving a boost to Obama’s push for quick action on jobs, U.S. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid told reporters in Washington that he would unveil a jobs package next week.

While a tepid economic recovery has begun, U.S. unemployment has remained at 10 percent. Failure to make progress on jobs could damage prospects for Obama’s Democratic party in November mid-term congressional election.

TAMPA, Florida (Reuters) – President Barack Obama on Thursday urged Israel and the Palestinians to make compromises to help revive peace talks, signaling he has not given up Middle East diplomacy despite his administration’s shaky efforts so far.

Speaking at a townhall-style meeting in Florida, Obama said he was still working to bring the two sides to the negotiating table to resume a peace process that has been frozen for the past 13 months.

He also reasserted his administration’s ability to act as an even-handed broker, saying he was committed to Israel’s security but also was sympathetic to the Palestinians’ plight.

“We are working to try to strengthen the ability of both parties to sit down across the table and to begin serious negotiations,” Obama said.

His efforts to restart talks have made little progress since he took office a year ago with a commitment to make ending the 62-year-old conflict a high priority. Critics say he was naive about obstacles such as Israeli settlement building.

Obama blamed internal politics both in Israel and the Palestinian territories for constraining peace diplomacy.

He cited problems faced by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who the president said “is making some effort to move a little bit further than his coalition wants to go.”

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – President Barack Obama will pledge on Wednesday not to give up on his push to overhaul the healthcare system, striking a defiant note in a speech to Americans after his worst political setback since taking office.

“By the time I’m finished speaking tonight, more Americans will have lost their health insurance. Millions will lose it this year,” Obama will say, according to excerpts of his speech released by the White House.

“I will not walk away from these Americans. And neither should the people in this chamber,” he will say in his annual State of the Union speech to Congress.

The address, which begins at 9 p.m. (0200 GMT Thursday), follows the loss by his Democratic party of a pivotal Senate seat in Massachusetts.

Obama will aim to tap into public discontent, stemming mainly from the still-struggling economy and a stubbornly high 10 percent unemployment rate, while buying time for his administration to regroup.

Obama said the American people expected Democrats and Republicans to work together to overcome the “numbing weight of our politics.”

“Rather than fight the same tired battles that have dominated Washington for decades, it’s time for something new,” he said. “Let’s try common sense.”

WASHINGTON, Jan 27 (Reuters) – President Barack Obama will pledge on Wednesday not to give up on his push to overhaul the healthcare system, striking a defiant note in a speech to Americans after his worst political setback since taking office. "By the time I’m finished speaking tonight, more Americans will have lost their health insurance. Millions will lose it this year," Obama will say, according to excerpts of his speech released by the White House. "I will not walk away from these Americans. And neither should the people in this chamber," he will say in his annual State of the Union speech to Congress. The address, which begins at 9 p.m. (0200 GMT Thursday), follows the loss by his Democratic party of a pivotal Senate seat in Massachusetts. Obama will aim to tap into public discontent, stemming mainly from the still-struggling economy and a stubbornly high 10 percent unemployment rate, while buying time for his administration to regroup. Obama said the American people expected Democrats and Republicans to work together to overcome the "numbing weight of our politics." "Rather than fight the same tired battles that have dominated Washington for decades, it’s time for something new," he said. "Let’s try common sense." The Massachusetts defeat has imperiled the sweeping legislative agenda Obama put forth when he took office a year ago because it deprives Democrats of their "supermajority" of 60 Senate votes to overcome Republican procedural hurdles. The change has stalled the effort to reform the $2.5 trillion healthcare system and led to predictions that one of the president’s highest priorities could fail. REBOOTING OBAMA’S AGENDA Analysts expect Obama to "reboot" of his policies by focusing on the economy and controlling spiralling budget deficits. He will seek measures to boost job growth and stimulate the economy but stress that this must be done without leaving the country with "a mountain of debt." Obama will try to convince Americans in his prime-time television speech that he understands their economic pain as he proposes new curbs on Wall Street and tax credits for middle-class families. He will call on Congress to limit contributions from lobbyists to political candidates after the U.S. Supreme Court last week removed restrictions on donations by corporations and trade unions. The court decision "reversed a century of law to open the floodgates for special interests" to influence U.S. elections. "I don’t think American elections should be bankrolled by America’s most powerful interests, and worse, by foreign entities," he will say. Obama will also urge Congress to repeal the policy of "Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell" that prevents openly gay people from serving in the military, a U.S. official said. (Additional reporting by Jeff Mason, Alister Bull, Matt Spetalnick and Ross Colvin, editing by Chris Wilson)