WASHINGTON - AMID rising public impatience with an economy now under his watch, President Barack Obama on Tuesday said his administration needs to push money out faster to initiate a recovery.

He also conceded that unemployment would rise above 10 per cent.

For the second time in a month, President Obama voiced unease over the results of a US$787 billion (S$1.14 trillion) economic stimulus that he pressed Congress to pass as one of his first acts as president.

New polls indicate that the still-popular president faces some erosion of support over his economic policies. Other polls show Americans are more upbeat than last year but still wary of spending, a sign of uncertainty and a prescription for a slow recovery.

President Obama's lowered expectations for employment served to prepare the public for more economic bad news even as the economy shows signs that the worst of the recession is over. Unemployment typically continues to rise even as an economy begins to recover.

Asked for his assessment of Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke, President Obama said he has performed 'a fine job under very difficult circumstances'. The Fed, which is the country's independent central bank, has worked closely with the administration to inject money into the struggling financial sector and to ease the credit crunch.

Mr Bernanke's term ends on Jan 30 and speculation about his replacement has centred on Lawrence Summers, President Obama's top economic adviser and former Harvard president.

President Obama said the Fed had done better than other government agencies in regulating the financial sector leading up to the Wall Street crisis, but he faulted the Fed for not anticipating the risks that contributed to the meltdown last fall.

Republicans pounced on the president's economic message, with House Republican leader John Boehner noting that nearly 3 million jobs have been lost this year.

The unemployment rate in May reached a 25-year high of 9.4 per cent. President Obama aides have said that the economy took a turn for the worse since their initial forecast. -- AP