The message from Obama was that "there was not going to be any spending money for the sake of spending money," said Lawrence H Summers, who will be the senior economic adviser in the White House.

Mark Zandi, chief economist of Moody's Economy.com, who was an adviser to Senator John McCain's presidential campaign, said, "my advice is, err on the side of too big a package rather than too little." In an interview, Zandi, who lately has advised Democratic leaders in Congress, also said he would probably soon raise his own recommendation of a $600-billion stimulus.

Besides new spending, the Obama plan would provide tax relief for low-wage and middle-income workers of roughly $150 billion, Democrats familiar with the proposal said. The government would probably reduce the withholding of income or payroll taxes so that most workers received larger paychecks as soon as possible in 2009, an Obama adviser said.

The sorts of jobs Obama would propose to create involve construction work on roads, mass transit projects, weatherisation of government buildings and installation of information technology in medical facilities, among others.

The outlines for Obama's emerging plan, which he is developing in consultation with Congress, including some Republicans, were mostly settled last Tuesday when he met for four hours with economic and policy advisers. Obama and his family left on Saturday for a two-week vacation in Hawaii, his native state, but the advisers will take his guidance — including instructions to be "bolder," according to one — and complete a draft in time for his return on January 2.

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