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President-elect Barack Obama leaves after having dinner at a friend's home in Chicago, Saturday, Nov. 22, 2008. (AP Photo/Charles Dharapak) (Charles Dharapak - AP)

CHICAGO -- With the economy in crisis, President-elect Barack Obama called on the new Congress to act quickly in passing a costly stimulus package to create jobs as a follow-up to the hundreds of billions of dollars the Bush administration has committed to rescue financial markets.

"The economy is likely to get worse before it gets better," Obama said Monday in a downbeat forecast, delivered 57 days before he takes the oath of office and with Americans heading into the year-end holiday season.

"Most experts now believe that we could lose millions of jobs next year," he said, urging the newly elected Congress to act quickly on his plans after opening its session on Jan. 6.

At a news conference, Obama was critical of the Big Three automakers, saying he was surprised they did not have a better-thought-out plan for their future before asking Congress to approve $25 billion in emergency loans.

He said once he sees a plan, he expects "we're going to be able to shape a rescue."

Obama declined to say how large a stimulus package he wants from Congress. Democratic lawmakers speculated over the weekend that the price tag could reach $700 billion over two years as the nation struggles to emerge from a recession compounded by a credit crunch. "It's going to be costly," the president-elect said.

Obama made his comments as he unveiled the top members of his economic team, beginning with New York Federal Reserve President Tim Geithner to be his treasury secretary. Geithner, 47, is a veteran of financial crises at home and overseas and has worked closely with the Bush administration in recent months.

Obama chose Lawrence Summers as director of his National Economic Council. Summers was treasury secretary under former President Bill Clinton.

Obama said his newly minted economic team offered "sound judgment and fresh thinking" at a time of economic peril.

He expressed confidence the nation would weather the crisis "because we've done it before."

Obama also announced two other members of his economic team in the making. He named Christina Romer as chair of his Council of Economic Advisers, and Melody Barnes as director of his White House Domestic Policy Council.

Obama's principal theme was urgency.

Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki speaks to the news media in al-Zawra park in Baghdad, Iraq on Saturday, Nov. 15, 2008. The provincial council of Baghdad organized a celebration Saturday on the occasion of Baghdad Day. (AP Photo/Khalid Mohammed) (Khalid Mohammed - AP)

BAGHDAD, Nov. 16 -- After months of painstaking negotiations between Baghdad and Washington, the Iraqi Cabinet on Sunday approved a bilateral agreement allowing U.S. troops to remain in this country for three more years.

The accord still needs approval by Iraq's parliament, but the Cabinet vote indicated that most major Iraqi parties supported it. The Iraqi government spokesman portrayed the pact as closing the book on the occupation that began with the U.S.-led 2003 invasion.

"The total withdrawal will be completed by Dec. 31, 2011. This is not governed by circumstances on the ground," the spokesman, Ali al-Dabbagh, told Iraqi reporters, pointedly rejecting the more conditional language that the U.S. government had earlier sought in the accord.

American officials have pointed out that there is nothing stopping the next Iraqi government from asking some U.S. troops to stay on. The Iraqi military is years away from being able to defend the country from external attack, according to both U.S. and Iraqi officials.

Still, there is no doubt that the accord, if passed by parliament, will sharply reduce the U.S. military's power in Iraq. American soldiers will be required to seek warrants from Iraqi courts to execute arrests, and to hand over suspects to Iraqi authorities. U.S. troops will have to leave their combat outposts in Iraqi cities by mid-2009, withdrawing to bases.

The U.S. government has lobbied hard for the status-of-forces agreement, which would replace a United Nations mandate authorizing the U.S. presence that expires on Dec. 31. Without some legal umbrella, the 150,000 U.S. forces would have to end their operations in Iraq in a few weeks' time, military officials said.

"We welcome the Cabinet's approval of the agreement today," the U.S. Embassy said in a statement read by a spokeswoman. "This is an important and positive step."

The Iraqi spokesman noted his government could cancel the agreement if its own forces became capable of controlling security at an earlier point.

"That matches the vision of U.S. President-elect Barack Obama," Dabbagh said, referring to the Democrat's plan to withdraw American combat troops within 16 months. "The Iraqi side would not mind [withdrawal] when the readiness of its forces is achieved."

While the Cabinet vote indicated that Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki had rounded up the support of most of Iraq's major parties, final passage of the accord is not guaranteed, politicians said.

One issue is timing: The notoriously slow-moving Iraqi parliament is scheduled to adjourn on Nov. 25 for a three-week break to allow lawmakers to make the hajj pilgrimage.

"We have a limited window of time," warned Hoshyar Zebari, the foreign minister.