US President Barack Obama's called an 11th-hour meeting with top congressional leaders to negotiate a deal to avoid the fiscal cliff.

Obama will meet Republican and Democrat leaders from both Houses later today.

The President returned to a sharply divided Washington yesterday, where the mood has soured on a possible plan to prevent hundreds of billions of dollars in tax hikes and spending cuts from kicking in next week.

Analysts fear that the package will tip the US economy back into recession, having a knock-on effect for global markets.

You can watch a report on the Fiscal Cliff facing Obama this morning: