Washington  - The US House of Representatives on Wednesday passed an unprecedented 819-billion-dollar economic stimulus package to help pull the world's largest economy out of its most serious recession in decades.

The House voted 244 to 188 for the bill. Democrats control the House 255 to 178.

President Barack Obama, who has made the stimulus - called the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act - a centrepiece of his efforts to revive the struggling economy, earlier made a final effort to convince skeptical legislators to back his plan, a mixture of two- thirds government spending projects and one-third tax cuts for consumers and businesses.

"I know there are some that are skeptical of the scale and size of this recovery plan," Obama said at a White House event.

As expected, the stimulus vote was largely along party lines, despite Obama's push for bipartisan support and his rare visit to Capitol Hill Tuesday to do some arm-twisting among minority Republicans.

While Obama called for both parties to work together, debate on the bill was at times very polarized and exposed sharp ideological divisions in the House chamber Wednesday.

It will now move to the US Senate. (dpa)