YEREVAN, March 4. /ARKA/. President Barack Obama on Friday signed an order that starts putting into effect across-the-board budget cuts known as the "sequester" after he and congressional leaders failed to find an alternative budget plan, Reuters reported two days ago.

The White House released a copy of Obama's directive entitled "Sequestration Order for Fiscal Year 2013." Government agencies will now begin to hack a total of $85 billion from their budgets between Saturday and Oct. 1.

In his weekly radio address, Obama appealed for Republicans to work with Democrats on a deal, saying Americans were weary of seeing Washington "careen from one manufactured crisis to another."

But he offered no new ideas to resolve the recurring fiscal fights, and there was no immediate sign of any negotiations.

"There's a caucus of common sense (in Congress)," Obama said in his address. "And I'm going to keep reaching out to them to fix this for good."—0-