Washington  - US President Barack Obama's economic recovery package was set to clear its final hurdles Friday as both houses of Congress voted on a nearly
790-billion-dollar compromise bill to help pull the United States out of recession.

The House of Representatives approved the stimulus package - the largest single spending proposal in US history - by a vote of 246-183 Friday afternoon. The Senate was expected to follow suit Friday evening.

Obama, addressing business leaders at the White House, said the stimulus package will create at least 3 million jobs and provided a "once-in-a-generation chance to act boldly and turn adversity into opportunity."

The bill would mark Obama's first major legislative victory since taking office January 20 and the White House said he may sign it as early as Monday.

But the stimulus has not come with the bipartisan support his administration had originally hoped for. Obama has instead relied on the Democratic Party's majorities in both chambers.

Not one member of the House's Republicans supported the measure and seven Democratic congressmen also voted against the bill. Only three Republicans in the
100-member Senate were expected to support its final passage.

Most Republicans have vociferously opposed the plan as too large and focussed on government spending rather than tax cuts that would better revive the economy.

"We owe it to the American people to get this bill right," said John Boehner, the top Republican in the House of Representatives. "I don't believe this is the way to do it."

The House and Senate on Wednesday announced that they had agreed on a deal that could squeeze the legislation through both houses of Congress. The Senate's final vote was expected to last well into Friday evening.

The two chambers had each passed separate versions of the legislation, with the Senate approving an 838-billion-dollar bill Tuesday and the House passing an
819-billion-dollar version last week. Both were approved mostly along party lines.

Democrats say the compromise version will create or save 3.5 million new jobs over the next two years, and some have complained it is too small to address the country's worst economic crisis since the Great Depression. About 3.6 million jobs have been lost since the US entered a recession in December 2007.

Obama, who could sign the bill as early as Monday, warned that the economic crisis was far from over despite the new injection of government funds into the world's largest economy.

"Passing this plan is a critical step," he said. "But it is only the beginning."

Obama has warned Congress that any delay could cost thousands more jobs. But Republicans and some Democrats complained the process was being unnecessarily rushed through the legislature in order to meet a self-imposed deadline of this weekend.

The final text of the more than 1,000-page bill was only released to legislators late Thursday night. (dpa)