Washington, Jul 12 (IANS/EFE): President Barack Obama has said that the US will not fail to pay its debts and urged both Republicans and his fellow Democrats to pay the political price of reaching an agreement on deficit reduction in order to raise the debt ceiling before Aug 2.

Obama told a press conference at the White House that there will be a meeting Monday and "every single day until we get this thing resolved".

The president said that he will keep pushing for "the biggest deal possible" to attain a deficit reduction of some $4 trillion over the next decade, something the Republicans reject because it would entail tax increases.

The Department of the Treasury has said that the US will exceed Aug 2 the debt ceiling of $14.29 trillion authorised by Congress.

"I've been hearing from my Republican friends for quite some time that it is a moral imperative for us to tackle our debt and our deficits in a serious way," Obama said Monday.

Reaching agreement will require compromise from both sides, he said, acknowledging that some Democrats object to his willingness to discuss changes to entitlement programmes such as Social Security and Medicare.

"There is, frankly, resistance on my side to do anything on entitlements. There is strong resistance on the Republican side to do anything on revenues. But if each side takes a maximalist position, if each side wants 100 percent of what its ideological predispositions are, then we can't get anything done," the president said.