WASHINGTON - US President Barack Obama Tuesday afternoon signed a bipartisan bill of raising the nation's debt limit into law, ending the month-long perilous stalemate and averting a potentially catastrophic debt default risk.

Obama signed the bill into law less than two hours after the measure cleared the US Senate with a vote of 74 to 26.

Obama announced Sunday night that he had reached a last-ditch debt ceiling deal with Republican and Democratic congressional leaders.

The plan aimed at slashing deficit for more than 2 trillion US dollars over the next decade, setting up a powerful new congressional bipartisan committee to find new ways on deficit cutting, and raising the US borrowing limit through 2013.