Washington  - The United States' economic recovery package cleared the Senate on Tuesday, on a 61-37 vote in favour of the
838- billion-dollar bill that would be the largest in US history.

The passage came as Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner announced a separate plan that would spend up to 2 trillion dollars to stabilize the financial sector.

Just three Republicans, who had helped to hammer out the compromise bill, voted in favour of the legislation.

Senator Mitch McConnell, leader of the minority Republicans in the chamber, had urged his party to vote against the bill, calling it "an enormous risk with other people's money" that increases debt with no guarantee of creating jobs.

Congress must now iron out differences between separate versions of the bill passed in the Senate and the lower House of Representatives before it can send the legislation to President Barack Obama to sign into law.

Congressional leaders have promised to get a final bill to Obama's desk by the end of the week. Obama has made the stimulus package the focus of his first weeks in office, and spent the early part of the week campaigning for its passage with stops in Indiana and Florida towns hard hit by the economic crisis and a televised press conference Monday evening.

The president welcomed the Senate's move on Tuesday, calling it "good news" at a townhall forum in Fort Meyers, Florida.

"We've still got to get the House bill and the Senate bill to match up before it gets sent to my desk, so we've got a little more work to do over the next couple of days, but it's a good start," he said.

The economic stimulus bill passed by the Senate had earlier been estimated to cost 827 billion dollars, but the Congressional Budget Office revised the cost upward to 838 billion dollars. About 35 per cent of the cost comes from tax cuts, with the rest made up of spending on infrastructure and other government programmes.

The lower House passed its own 819-billion-dollar version of the stimulus last month. Though the size of the packages are roughly the same, the Senate added tax cuts and removed some spending programmes that could make for contentious negotiations between the two chambers.

Democrats hold a 58-41 seat majority with one empty seat in the upper chamber. (dpa)