Obama pledges urgent and sweeping measures to prop up US economy

Barack Obama has promised urgent action to tackle the US job crisis through the biggest infrastructure spending programme since the 1950s.
Speaking in his weekly internet address, and after figures showed the US economy shed 533,000 jobs last month, the US president-elect promised "action now" to get Americans back into work.
"We will create millions of jobs by making the single largest new investment in our national infrastructure since the creation of the federal highway system in the 1950s," he said.
Obama gave more details of a recovery plan to save or create at least 2.5m jobs, and said that states that did not spend the money fast would be penalised. "We'll set a simple rule - use it or lose it," he said. But he claimed he would not simply throw money at the problem.
"We'll measure progress by the reforms we make and the results we achieve - by the jobs we create, by the energy we save, by whether America is more competitive in the world."
His jobs promise came as new figures showed that more than 300,000 people have already applied for posts in his White House team.
The vast majority of applicants will be disappointed – there are likely to be only around 3,300 jobs in the incoming administration when Obama takes over from George Bush on January 20.
In his address, Obama promised "the most sweeping effort to modernise and upgrade school buildings that this country has ever seen".
Obama, who was urged by Democratic members of Congress to "be more assertive than he has been" over plans to help America's beleaguered car industry yesterday, said the nation felt "rising unease and frustration" as the total number of jobs lost in the recession reached almost 2m.
"We need to act with the urgency this moment demands to save or create at least two- and-a-half million jobs so that the nearly two million Americans who've lost them know that they have a future," he said.
Obama also set out plans to increase access to broadband internet connections in schools, libraries and hospitals.
"It is unacceptable that the United States ranks 15th in the world in broadband adoption," he said.
He added: "Every child should have the chance to get online."