WASHINGTON - PRESIDENT-ELECT Barack Obama is including a $300 billion (S$438.2 billion) tax break in his massive stimulus package for the US economy that he will begin discussing with lawmakers on Monday, The Wall Street Journal said on Sunday.

Mr Obama's 'American Recovery and Reinvestment Plan' is expected to cost between $750 billion and $1 trillion. Nobody quantified the tax relief it includes, but the Journal said it could account for about 40 per cent of the overall stimulus package.

Mr Obama hopes the $300 billion tax break for people earning up to $200,000 a year that also includes a one-year tax credit for companies that hire or rehire more people - worth some $40-50 billion - will help 'create or save' three million jobs by 2011.

The huge tax break, described by the daily as bigger than any enacted under outgoing President George W. Bush, is also aimed at getting Republicans to back Mr Obama's stimulus plan.

Democratic lawmakers are optimistic the package will be approved in Congress by early February, just weeks after Mr Obama moves into the White House on January 20. But top Republicans have called for more time and public hearings before voting on the bill.

'We're working with Congress to develop a tax-cut package based on a simple principle: What will have the biggest and most immediate impact on creating private-sector jobs and strengthening the middle class?' Mr Obama's transition-team spokesman Stephanie Cutter was quoted as saying by The Journal.

'We're guided by what works, not by any ideology or special interests.'

Mr Obama is expected to meet on Monday with congressional leaders to hammer out wfinal details of his stimulus package designed to revive the country's reeling economy.