President Obama has been hosting a televised political summit to try to rescue his plans to reform America's health care system. Mr Obama said health care was an urgent issue that affected all Americans. This report from Mark Mardell in Washington begins with the president urging Republicans and Democrats to set aside their party differences.

"I hope that this isn't a political theater, where we are just playing to the cameras and criticizing each other, but instead we’re actually trying to solve the problem."

That's perhaps a vain hope for a televised gathering of 41 politicians from opposing parties, all with moving stories. This could end up as a blame game. The Republicans are calling for the president to tear up his plans and start from scratch. He keeps trying to drag them back to concrete proposals.