The U.S. House of Representatives Monday passed a last-ditch bipartisan debt ceiling plan to avert a looming debt default crisis.

The TV grab shows House of Representatives voting at the Capitol Hill, Washington D.C., capital of the United States, Aug. 1, 2011. The U.S. House of Representatives Monday passed a last-ditch bipartisan debt ceiling plan to avert a looming debt default crisis. (Xinhua/Zhang Jun)
U.S. President Barack Obama announced Sunday night that he had reached a last-minute debt ceiling deal with Republican and Democratic leaders to avert a looming debt crisis.

The 269-161 vote in the Republican-held House cleared a key hurdle for the package to become law.

The passage of the bill in the lower chamber came after House Speaker John Boehner, a Republican, and Vice President Joe Biden, a Democrat, Monday struggled to get rank-and-file support from their parties and secure its passage.

The plan aimed at slashing deficit for more than 2 trillion dollars over the next decade, setting up a powerful new congressional bipartisan committee to find new ways on deficit cutting, and raising the U.S. borrowing limit through 2013.

The U.S. federal government's borrowing limit, currently at 14. 29 trillion U.S. dollars, was reached on May 16. The Treasury Department said that it would run out of cash to pay its bills unless the Congress agreed to raise the limit by Aug. 2.

"If the bill were presented to the president, he would sign it," the White House said in a Monday statement prior to the House vote.

This bill still needs to clear a Democratic-controlled Senate, where the passage is widely expected. The Senate is expected to vote on the bill Tuesday.

VietNamNet/Xinhuanet