Washington ? President Bush jumped into the debate over unemployment benefits Saturday, calling upon Congress to take immediate action next month to extend unemployment payments for more than 750,000 Americans who no longer will receive their checks as of Dec. 28.

Democrats had been blasting the Bush administration for remaining silent as efforts to extend the benefits deadlocked.

“When our legislators return to the capital, I ask them to make the extension of unemployment benefits a first order of business,” Bush said during his weekly radio address.

The president urged Congress to make the extension retroactive so recipients whose benefits expire Dec. 28 would be paid in full. He also said he would direct the Department of Labor to work with state unemployment programs to minimize delays in payment.

The president’s comments come as the nation’s unemployment rate rose to 6 percent last month and the administration is attempting to show that it actively is engaged in getting the U.S. economy back on track.

But critics called the president’s push on unemployment benefits too little, too late.

“He’s very late in expressing an opinion,” said Maurice Emsellem of the National Employment Law Project in Oakland, Calif.

Emsellem said the president’s remarks did not address the more serious issues of what to do about the estimated 1 million Americans whose unemployment benefits have run out, although they still cannot find work. Beginning in January, about 90,000 more Americans each week will see their benefits run out, he said.