Senate leaders were meeting last night in a desperate attempt to resolve the stalemate over the US debt ceiling amid warnings of a global recession should the US run out of money to pay its debts.

美国参议院领导人昨晚开会，急切希望打破债务上限僵局。目前外界警告称，一旦美国拖欠债务，全球将陷入经济衰退。

With just four days left before the country faces the risk of default, Christine Lagarde, the managing director of the International Monetary Fund, warned that if the debt ceiling, which will be reached at midnight tomorrow, is not lifted, the global economy would be disrupted.

美债违约大限仅剩四天之际，国际货币基金组织(IMF)总裁克里斯蒂娜·拉加德(Christine Lagarde)警告，如果明天午夜即将触顶的美债上限不能提高，全球经济将受到破坏。

“We would be at risk of tipping, yet again, into recession,” Ms Lagarde told NBC.

拉加德告诉美国全国广播公司(NBC): “我们可能会再次陷入衰退。”

Her comments followed a warning from Jim Yong Kim, the World Bank president, at the weekend that the US was just “days away from a very dangerous moment” unless politicians produce a plan to avoid default. “If this comes to pass, it could be a disastrous event for the developing world, and that will in turn greatly hurt developed economies as well,” he said.

而在此之前，世界银行(World Bank)行长金墉(Jim Yong Kim)周末曾警告，除非政界人士拿出计划避免违约，否则美国“几天之后将面临非常危险的时刻”。他说：“如果发生这种情况，对于发展中国家来说可能是灾难性的，这进而又将重创发达经济体。”

Harry Reid, the Democratic majority leader in the Senate, and Mitch McConnell, the chamber’s top Republican, have taken over the negotiations after talks between the White House and conservatives in the House broke down on Saturday night.

继上周六晚上白宫和众议院保守派之间的磋商失败之后，参议院民主党领袖哈里·里德(Harry Reid)和参议院共和党一号人物米奇·麦康奈尔(Mitch McConnell)接手谈判。

The Senate talks are also at an impasse in a dispute over a Democratic push to unwind automatic budget cuts agreed after an earlier budget dispute, something Republicans are resisting.

参议院的磋商在另一个问题上也陷入僵局，那就是民主党方面推动解除早前一次预算纠纷后达成的自动预算削减，而共和党反对这一提议。

Time is an issue since any agreement reached in the Senate might take days to be approved and could be held up even longer if Republican senators used procedural tactics, such as the filibuster, to delay a vote.

时间是一个问题，因为在参议院达成的任何协议都可能需要数天时间才能得到批准，而如果共和党参议员使用程序上的战术（比如冗长辩论）拖延表决，那就可能耽搁更长时间。

The Republican-dominated House, which does not convene until tomorrow evening, would then have to approve any Senate compromise, a difficult vote with so many opposed to any Democratic plan.

共和党占多数的众议院最快要到明晚才能开会，参议院的任何妥协都需要获得众议院通过。由于民主党的任何计划都会遭到很多共和党议员反对，因而投票将会很艰难。

Mohamed El-Erian, chief executive of major asset manager Pimco, said that a default by the US government would be worse than the collapse of Lehman Brothers in 2008, and would devastate the markets. He was speaking at a conference held by the Institute of International Finance. Other financial industry executives said that they expected futures markets to fall when Asian markets open, if politicians do not agree.

知名资产管理公司——太平洋投资管理公司(Pimco)首席执行官穆罕默德·埃尔-埃利安(Mohamed El-Erian)表示，美国政府的违约可能会比2008年雷曼兄弟(Lehman Brothers)破产带来更严重的后果，将给市场造成毁灭性打击。他是在国际金融协会(Institute of International Finance)举办的一次会议上发表讲话的。金融行业的其他高管也认为，如果政治人物谈不拢，亚洲市场开盘后期货市场就会下跌。

With support from the US Treasury, the Group of 20 concluded that “the US needs to take urgent action to address short-term fiscal uncertainties”.

20国集团(G20)在美国财政部(US Treasury)的支持下得出结论：“美国需要采取紧急行动来解决短期财政不确定性。”

The latest snag comes as 350,000 federal workers remain idle, hundreds of thousands more work without pay as the shutdown enters its third week. However, the Statue of Liberty was reopened yesterday after New York agreed to shoulder the running costs of the major tourist attraction.

最新的谈判破裂消息传出之际，美国联邦政府关门进入第三周，35万联邦职工仍在无薪休假，还有数十万职员处于留职无薪状态。然而，在纽约同意承担主要旅游景点的日常运行成本之后，自由女神像(Statue of Liberty)昨天重新向游客开放。

Additional reporting By Chris Giles in Washington.

克里斯·贾尔斯(Chris Giles)华盛顿补充报道