THE White House and Republican leaders yesterday moved closer to an agreement on a plan to balance the US budget by 2002. Republican leaders said they were happy with the outline of the plan, which would eliminate the deficits that have been a feature of every US budget since 1969.

But President Clinton said last night he was not satisfied with the proposed deal, which was agreed in outline by Democrat and Republican negotiators late on Wednesday night. The proposal has been resisted by liberal members of Mr Clinton's Democratic party, who found the spending cuts too harsh.