White House insists healthcare summit no trap

With his sweeping healthcare overhaul effort floundering in the face of united Republican opposition and public skepticism, Obama has invited Republican leaders to the meeting on February 25, which will be nationally televised.

He promised to post his own proposal for an overhaul online before the event and asked Republicans to do the same.

"Everybody that's in Washington that works in the executive branch and the legislative branch was sent here as part of representative democracy to solve problems," White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said at Tuesday's daily media briefing. "That's what this is intended to do."

"The president will lay out his ideas, and I would expect that Republicans will, and others will, lay out their solutions," he said.

The Obama administration on Friday invited 12 Democratic members of Congress and nine Republicans to the conference on revamping the $2.5 trillion U.S. healthcare system, an issue central to the Democratic president's domestic agenda.

Republicans have said they will attend, but they are wary that the White House is trying to set a political trap for them, preparing to blame Republicans if the healthcare effort falters.