Washington  - Keen to keep the spotlight Monday on the massive economic stimulus package being debated in the US Senate, the White House asked the Treasury Department to delay unveiling a separate rescue plan for the financial sector.

US Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner had planned to announce on Monday a separate bail-out package for financial firms, homeowners and consumer credit markets, called the Financial Stability and Recovery Plan. This has been postponed until Tuesday.

"The Senate votes on Monday and economic officials administration- wide will be working and consulting with senators throughout the day," the Treasury explained the delay in a statement Sunday, according to Bloomberg financial news.

"There's a desire to keep the focus right now on the economic recovery programme, which is so very, very important," Lawrence Summers, director of the National Economic Council, told ABC's This Week programme. "If there was ever a moment to transcend politics, this is that moment."

The US Senate spent the weekend debating an unprecedented economic stimulus package to help pull the United States out of its worst recession in decades.

A bipartisan group of senators put forward a tentative deal late Friday on a 780-billion-dollar recovery plan, a compromise stripping about 150 billion dollars off an earlier version.

A key procedural vote on the 780-billion-dollar plan is scheduled for Monday. Even if this bill is approved, a final bill will have to be negotiated with the House of Representatives, which has already passed an 819-billion-dollar version of the stimulus legislation.

Democrats, who hold majorities in both houses, have promised to finalize the bill by Friday.

Republicans have insisted that the package before the Senate contain more tax cuts and be significantly trimmed of what they call wasteful spending.

"I know we're in trouble. I know America needs a stimulus. We need tax cuts. We need to spend money on infrastructure and on other programmes that will immediately put people to work. But this is not it," Republican Senator John McCain told CBS' Face the Nation.

Among several Republicans criticizing the bill Sunday was Senator Richard Shelby from Alabama who told CNN that the stimulus package would put the US on "the road to financial disaster."

"Everybody on the street in America understands that. This is not the right road to go. We'll pay dearly," he said.

Summers said the Republicans lacked credibility on the issue. "Those who presided over the last eight years - the eight years that brought us to the point where we inherit trillions of dollars of deficit, an economy that's collapsing more rapidly than at any time in the last 50 years - don't seem to me in a strong position to lecture about the lessons of history," he told ABC.

President Barack Obama, who has trumpeted the plan as vital to US recovery prospects, has warned that any delay would be "inexcusable and irresponsible" amid millions of US job losses and a deepening recession.

On Monday morning, Obama will fly to Elkhart, Indiana, to build support for his economic recovery plan. The unemployment rate in Elkhart has jumped from 4.7 per cent to
15.3 per cent since last year. He will later address his first press conference Monday night. (dpa)