US stimulus package will benefit cities: Biden

The US government said its massive $787-billion economic stimulus package, unveiled to rescue the country from the worst recession in decades, will benefit the development of cities and create jobs.

"Everything we have done has been with one goal in mind: to move this economy and the world's economy from recession to recovery and ultimately to prosperity," US vice-president Joe Bidden said at the University of Illinois-Chicago urban forum.

He lauded the importance of cities, saying their development would help boost the US economy and create job opportunities for the people and upgrade their life.

The United States' 100 biggest cities "occupy 12 per cent of our land mass but they generate two-thirds of America's jobs and... of our gross domestic product," Biden said at the forum attended by mayors and officials from 32 cities worldwide.

"City dwellers have a much smaller carbon footprint than others in America. The innovators are in the cities. We want to fill the steel and glass canyons not solely with people who can do complex financial calculations but with scientists and engineers who build and make the things that will power the strong economic base and economic future," he said.