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U.S President George Bush said his nation faces a "long and painful recession" if Congress does not pass his massive financial rescue plan.

In stark language, he said "our entire economy is in danger."

Speaking to the nation in a prime-time address, Bush pushed for his $700 billion government rescue plan.

"Without immediate action by Congress, America could slip into a financial panic and a distressing scenario would unfold," he said from the White House East Room.

He said the goal of the plan is to buy up troubled and underpriced assets so that credit can start flowing again.

Bush said the rescue plan was aimed at the entire economy, not any individual company or industry.

He also seemed to endorse a number of changes that had been offered from lawmakers, from both the left and the right.

He said executives should not receive any windfall from taxpayers, a key Democratic demand.

But he said he would draw the line at some compromises.

"Efforts to regulate Wall Street should not hamper our economy's ability to grow," Bush told lawmakers.

Bush also gave the American public a rather-odd five-minute history lecture on how the economy found itself in such a dire situation, considering how well-told that story is.

Bush invites Obama, McCain to meet

Just before his speech Bush invited both presidential candidates and the leaders of the House and Senate to meet with him at the White House Thursday in hopes of hammering out a compromise.

Bush took the unusual step of calling Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama personally to invite him to the meeting. Obama plans to attend the meeting, a campaign spokesperson said.

There is no word yet if Republican presidential nominee John McCain will attend the meeting.

White House press secretary Dana Perino said the call between Bush and Obama lasted several minutes and was a "good conversation."

The announcement of the speech came after U.S. Treasury Secretary, Henry Paulson, reportedly accepted a major change in legislation for the bailout of the financial industry on Wednesday.

The Bush administration relented to demands from both parties to limit pay packages to executives who benefit from the bailout.

The administration is hoping to push the bailout through Congress as quickly as possible, but the effort is facing opposition.

McCain said it looked like the bailout would not pass but both Republican and Democrat leaders seemed to think otherwise Wednesday night.

"We are committed to continuing to work co-operatively and on a bipartisan basis to safeguard the interests of the American taxpayers," said Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and House Republican leader John Boehner of Ohio.

Paulson and Federal Reserve chairman Ben Bernanke spent most of the day in the Capital, running between public hearings on the proposal and private meetings with lawmakers.

In their statement, Pelosi and Boehner said, "We agree that key changes should be made to the administration's initial proposal. It must include basic good-government principles, including rigorous and independent oversight, strong executive compensation standards and protections for taxpayers."

Paulson met for the second consecutive day with House Republicans, some of whom have said they oppose any federal bailout of the private financial markets.

Other Republicans appear to be more open to legislation, but on different terms than the White House proposed last weekend.

Democrats are also seeking major changes to the bailout plan but also stress they are willing to co-operate with the White House to head off an economic catastrophe.

Pelosi told reporters "we're moving in a productive direction," but had no idea when a solution would be made."

"We'll finish it when it's ready," Pelosi said. "I'd rather it be sooner rather than later."

Both parties' presidential candidates are also calling for alterations to the drastic prescription.

Tom Velk, a McGill economics professor, told Â鶹ӰÊÓnet on Wednesday that he blames both the slowdown of the bailout's approval by Congress and the credit crunch itself on the Democrats.

"They are dragging their feet, I think, to help their candidates because this situation has been moving up the Obama numbers," he said.

Velk said legislation passed by the Democrats years prior is responsible for the current crisis, because it allowed people with no income, jobs or assets to buy homes.

"It's those kind of people bought houses and had no responsibility when the house values fell below their mortgage value," he said.

"They simply walked away and they started this row of dominoes collapsing that ended up with the mortgage crisis we are facing now."

With files from The Associated Press