House Speaker John Boehner and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid are meeting with their teams to avert a federal shutdown on April 8 -- President Barack Obama's team won't be there at the Speaker's request, the President said Tuesday.

Obama also rejected one week extension proposed by Hal Rogers, the head of the House Appropriation's committee, saying previous extensions had been done to give the parties the time to get something done.

We are now at the point where there is no excuse to extend this further, Obama told reporters.

Obama said the budget talks focusing on the remainder of the fiscal year - until September 30 - represent only 12 percent of the budget and is not going to significantly dent the deficit or the debt.

The House and Senate meeting was set to take place at 4:00 p.m.

Earlier in the day Obama met with the leaders as well as the heads of the House and Senate appropriations committee. Boehner said no deal was struck and that at a proposal $33 billion below Obama's proposal for the budget last year would not be enough.

Boehner is urging a proposal $40 billion below Obama's, Politico reported.

If they can't sort it out, then I want them back here tomorrow, Obama said. We are prepared to put whatever resources are required in terms of time and energy to get this done.

We are now closer than we have ever been to getting an agreement, Obama said. We have now matched the number that the Speaker originally sought.

The only question is whether politics or ideology are going to get in the way of preventing a government shutdown, Obama said.

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