WASHINGTON - President Barack Obama has returned to Washington after a winter vacation in Hawaii that was interrupted by the "fiscal cliff" crisis.

Obama landed at Andrews Air Force Base in Maryland on Sunday morning after an overnight flight.

The president's annual end-of-year visit to his native state was disrupted just after Christmas when he was forced to return to the capital to help broker a solution on a plan to avert a combination of tax increases and spending cuts that could have plunged the economy back into recession.

He returned to Hawaii on New Year's Day.

Obama faces a full agenda in Washington, including possible appointments of a new defence secretary and CIA director and a meeting with Afghan President Hamid Karzai.

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