The U.S. Army's chief of staff on
Wednesday urged a quick resolution of a funding row that has led to a U.S.
government shutdown, saying it was significantly harming the army's day-to-day
operations.
"It is going to be difficult for us to
do anything. We won't be doing training like we normally would, we won't be
travelling, we won't be doing the coordination necessary, only
mission-essential tasks," General Ray Odierno said of the first government
shutdown in 17 years. He said it "impacts significantly day-to-day
operations".
"The longer it goes on, the worse it
gets. Every day that goes by, we are losing manpower, we are losing capability,
so in my mind it is important we get this resolved," he told Reuters in a
telephone interview from Germany, where he was attending a conference.
This comes after the White House
said that President Barack Obama has scrapped the Malaysia and Philippine
portions of a scheduled four-country Asia trip because of the U.S. government
shutdown, and the rest of the trip remains up in the air.
Obama is scheduled to set off on the trip on
Saturday. He was to have visited Malaysia and the Philippines after attending
international summits in Indonesia and Brunei.
The White House said it would continue to
evaluate the Indonesia and Brunei portions of the president's trip based on how
events develop throughout the course of the week.
Also on Wednesday, President Obama will meet
the four top leaders of Congress at the White House to urge lawmakers to reopen
the government and raise the U.S. debt ceiling, a White House official said.
Obama will meet at 5:30 p.m. EDT (2130 GMT)
with Republican Speaker of the House of Representatives John Boehner, House
Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and Senate
Republican leader Mitch McConnell.
Obama will urge the House to pass a
"clean" bill to re-open the U.S. government, the official said.
Boehner's office said the meeting would be
the start of serious talks to bridge differences that led to government
agencies closing down.
REUTERS