President Barack Obama said on Saturday his New Year's resolution is to keep the U.S. economic recovery going and he called on Republicans to help."Our most important task now is to keep that recovery going," Obama said in his weekly radio address posted on the White House website. "That's my resolution for the coming year."
Republicans will take over majority control of the House of Representatives and increase their numbers in the Senate, posing new challenges to Obama in 2011.
"In a few days, a new Congress will form, with one house controlled by Democrats, and one house controlled by Republicans - who now have a shared responsibility to move this country forward."
Obama said that recent economic data was encouraging but jobs were not being created fast enough.
Upbeat U.S. data issued on Dec 30 supported views that the economy gained momentum as the year ended.
New applications for unemployment benefits dropped 34,000 the prior week to 388,000, the lowest level since July 2008, while factory activity in the Midwest expanded in December at its fastest pace in more than 22 years.
Despite the November mid-terms elections, which Obama called a "shellacking" for Democrats, Obama's party still holds a 53-to-47 majority in the Senate.
But the 60-vote "cloture" rule in that chamber presents a steep challenge to passing laws. Senate Republican minority leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky also said in October his main goal was to make Obama "a one-term president."
