U.S. President Barack Obama on Saturday renewed his call on Congress to pass a series of measures aimed at reducing gun violence, but also reaffirmed his commitment to the right to bear arms.

"My administration is taking a series of actions right away - from strengthening our background check system, to helping schools hire more resource officers if they want them, to directing the Centers for Disease Control to study the best ways to reduce gun violence," Obama said in his weekly radio and Internet address.

President Barack Obama Wednesday demanded an assault weapons ban and universal background checks for gun buyers, stoking a generational clash with the firearms lobby after the Newtown school massacre.

"We can't put this off any longer. I will put everything I've got into this," Obama said, laying out the most sweeping gun control legislation in decades and daring Congress not to defy public outrage and block his plans.

Only the people of Israel can decide who will represent their best interests, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Wednesday in remarks directed at U.S. President Barack Obama a week before a general election.

"I think everyone knows that the citizens of Israel are the only ones who can decide who will faithfully represent the vital interests of the state," he said.

Israeli MPs on Wednesday accused U.S. President Barack Obama of meddling in Israel's upcoming elections over an opinion piece purporting to outline his view of Benjamin Netanyahu's "self-defeating" policies.

The piece, which was published by the prominent Bloomberg columnist Jeffery Goldberg, made headlines across the Israeli press and sparked angry reactions from MPs from the Israeli prime minister's ruling rightwing Likud party.

U.S. President Barack Obama will unveil his proposals to curb gun violence at the White House on Wednesday, his spokesman said.

"Tomorrow, the president and the vice president will hold an event here at the White House to unveil a package of concrete proposals to reduce gun violence and prevent future tragedies like the one in Newtown, Connecticut," White House spokesman Jay Carney said.

President Barack Obama on Monday dismissed the perception that he is aloof and disdains the backslapping bonhomie a U.S. leader sometimes requires to drive his priorities through Congress.

Obama put his often polarizing differences with Republicans down to politics rather than personal antipathy, arguing that though he had enjoyed a round of golf with House Speaker John Boehner, it had not helped get things done.

President Barack Obama warned of a new economic crisis Monday and said global stock markets would go "haywire" unless Republicans in Congress agree to raise the U.S. sovereign debt ceiling.

"To even entertain the idea of this happening, of the United States of America not paying its bills, it is irresponsible, it is absurd," Obama said in repeating his demand for a debt limit rise.

Organizers unveiled the first-ever smartphone app for a U.S. presidential inauguration on Monday, allowing users to track Barack Obama's swearing in, sign up for events and check maps for the closest toilets.

The Presidential Inaugural Committee's debut application for iPhone and Android users provides a front-row seat for people not in Washington on January 21, while offering tips to attendees on how to navigate the vast security apparatus set up for the big day.

U.S. President Barack Obama said Saturday that the U.S. goal in Afghanistan was "within reach" as he vowed to move ahead with a timetable to end the 11-year-old military campaign and focus on a broad domestic agenda.

"We've pushed the Taliban out of their strongholds," Obama said in his weekly radio and Internet address. "And our core objective -- the reason we went to war in the first place -- is now within reach: ensuring that Al-Qaida can never again use Afghanistan to launch attacks against America."

President Barack Obama has promised to speed up a transfer of lead security responsibility from NATO to Afghan forces this spring, in a sign the pace of U.S. troop withdrawals could quicken.

After meeting Afghan President Hamid Karzai Friday, Obama said NATO forces would have a "very limited" role in the country after 2014 and insisted that Washington had achieved its prime goal of "decapitating" Al-Qaida.