US Republicans in debt-ceiling offer
US Republicans have offered President Barack Obama a short-term debt limit increase to stave off default.
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House Speaker John Boehner said they would do so in exchange for wider negotiations with the White House to end a government shutdown that took effect on 1 October.
Republicans will meet Mr Obama later on Thursday.
Officials have warned the US will risk default on 17 October if the nation's borrowing limit is not increased.
Mr Boehner said on Thursday: "What we want to do is to offer the president today the ability to move a temporary increase in the debt ceiling in agreement to go to conference on the budget for his willingness to sit down and discuss with us a way forward to reopen the government."
A spokesman for Mr Boehner told reporters that the deal on the table ahead of Thursday afternoon's meeting was a "clean" increase of the debt limit, with no additional policies attached.
But it would only last six weeks - until November 22.
On Wednesday, Mr Obama met House Democrats at the White House and told them he would prefer a longer-term increase to the nation's $16.69 trillion (£10.47 trillion) debt ceiling.
But the president said he was willing to accept a short-term rise in the borrowing cap to "give Boehner some time to deal with the Tea Party wing of his party", Representative Peter Welch told the Associated Press news agency after the meeting.
The White House has not yet responded to Mr Boehner's offer, but has repeatedly said Mr Obama would not negotiate until Republicans had removed both the debt ceiling threats and agreed to lift the government shutdown.
Earlier, Treasury Secretary Jack Lew told a congressional panel the US could not prioritise between its payment obligations once borrowing was exhausted.
Mr Lew warned lawmakers the government could miss pension and healthcare payments for the elderly as well as military salaries.
And a missing payment on US debt would trigger a potentially more profound financial crisis, he warned.
"This system was not designed to be turned off selectively," Mr Lew told a Senate hearing. "It would be chaos."
Since the US hit its debt ceiling in May, the US Treasury has been using what are called extraordinary measures to keep paying the bills, but those measures run out on 17 October, Mr Lew has said.
On Thursday, International Monetary Fund (IMF) chief Christine Lagarde warned failure by the US to raise its debt ceiling would do serious damage to both the American and global economies.
Source: BBC