"The rates of illness continue to rise rapidly within many communities across the nation, and the potential exists for the pandemic to overburden health care resources in some localities."

He said the US had already taken "proactive steps" by implementing public health measures and developing an effective swine flu vaccine.

However, last week officials warned there could be delays in the delivery of vaccines.

Swine flu may hospitalize 1.8 million patients in the U.S. this year, filling intensive care units to capacity and causing "severe disruptions" during a fall resurgence, scientific advisers to the White House warned.

The president's advisory council describes as a "plausible scenario," that 30 percent to 50 percent of the U.S. population will be infected in the fall and winter. As many as 300,000 patients may be treated in hospital intensive care units, filling 50 percent to 100 percent of the available beds, and 30,000 to 90,000 people may die, the group's report said.

"This is a planning scenario, not a prediction," according to the report. "But the scenario illustrates that an H1N1 resurgence could cause serious disruption of social and medical capacities in our country in the coming months."

Peter Gross, chief medical officer at Hackensack University Medical Center in New Jersey, said if the group's scenario comes true, "I think every hospital in America is going to be in a crunch. We’ll be hard pressed to deal with those predictions," he said.

President Barack Obama was urged by his scientific advisory council to speed vaccine production as the best way to ease the burden on the health care system. Initial doses should be accelerated to mid-September to provide shots for as many as 40 million people, the panel said in a report released yesterday. Members also recommended Obama name a senior member of the White House staff, preferably the homeland security adviser, to take responsibility for decision-making on the pandemic.

Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood said the Obama administration would honor any "Cash for Clunkers" car sales through Tuesday, but warned that unless the Senate approves a $2 billion funding extension this week, the administration would be forced to pull the plug on the popular program. "What I'm committed to saying this morning is that any deal that is made tomorrow or the next day and is in the pipeline will be reimbursed," Mr. LaHood said, in an interview on CSPAN's The Newsmakers program Sunday morning.

Mr. LaHood said the chaos in the clunkers program late last week was due to processing errors at the outside contractor hired by the Department of Transportation to administer the plan, Citigroup Inc. Just six days after the clunkers program went live, it became apparent to Department of Transportation officials that they didn't know how much of the $1 billion allocated to the plan had been spent. There was a scramble Thursday, where initially lawmakers were told by officials the program would be suspended at midnight, only for the White House to reverse course several hours later and insist the program wouldn't be suspended.

Even by Sunday, Mr. LaHood seemed unsure how much of the money had been spoken for. He first said the entire $1 billion hadn't been spent, but then later in the interview repeatedly said the money was exhausted. The clunkers program offers subsidies of up to $4,500 to people to trade in older, heavier-polluting vehicles, for new, more fuel efficient ones.

Say what you will about the advisability of Thursday's Beer Summit, but one thing was clear: It was the most momentous moment for White House suds in three-quarters of a century. The last time the question of presidential beer was considered quite so newsworthy came in spring of 1933, when President Franklin D. Roosevelt acted to make 3.2 beer legal, setting the stage for the elimination of Prohibition altogether. At the stroke of midnight, April 7, beer started flowing, and within minutes a shiny new truck from Washington's Abner-Drury Brewery was hurtling down a rain-slick Pennsylvania Ave, led by an escort of motorcycle cops. Inside the truck were two cases of freshly brewed beer; outside was a banner proclaiming "President Roosevelt, the first real beer is yours!" Other beer makers were quick to follow suit. No dummy, F.D.R. had the bottles distributed to the thirsty gentlemen of the press.

As a gentleman of the press, I'm obliged to note that this is a very sound policy. (And at the Beer Summit, all those photographers 40 feet away from the president's garden table looked awfully thirsty.) The impulse to pass the cold ones around was one that the savvy Roosevelt was to maintain throughout the 1930s. Every year he would hold a party for the fourth estate at the White House. "The entire first floor of the mansion, as well as the garden, is thrown open," Delbert Clark of the New York Times recounted. There was a jazz band for dancing, and "beer barrels set up in the main lobby." In other words, F.D.R. hosted keggers.