DAVOS: Wall Street executives welcomed US President Barack Obama’s plan to create jobs and a softening of his attack on banks, but questioned on Thursday whether proposals in his State of the Union address would become law.

Obama pushed job creation to the top of his agenda in his annual speech to Congress and vowed not to abandon his struggling healthcare overhaul after the loss of a key Senate seat in Massachusetts raised doubts about his leadership.

He renewed criticism of bankers’ “bad behavior” and of the recklessness that triggered the deepest crisis since the 1930s, but appeared to ease his assault on big banks.

“The market is probably relieved that he didn’t come out with some other nuclear attack on Wall Street,” John Studzinski, global head of the advisory group at Blackstone said.

Studzinski, a former investment banking boss, told Reuters on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum that he welcomed the plan to boost lending to small businesses, but said execution would be critical: “The devil is in the detail.”

Tom Donahue, President of the US Chamber of Commerce, said he welcomed the job moves and the fact Obama had adopted some of the initiatives promoted by his organization, including doubling exports in five years with the help of a push for improved trade agreements and changes in export control rules.

“I think it is a recognition that everybody is getting down to the reality (that) what keeps people happy or not happy, what is going to get us out of the recession or not, what is going to address the deficit or not is jobs, jobs and jobs,” Donahue told Reuters.

Howard Lutnick, head of private investment bank Cantor Fitzgerald, criticized Obama’s “populist battle against the banks” and warned that local banks could find too many strings attached to government aid.

“These community banks are so fearful of the classic words ‘Hi, I am the government I am here to help’ — those are dangerous words indeed,” he said in an interview at the WEF in the Swiss resort of Davos.

“It is tremendously risky for any institution... to in any way be caught in the government safety net, because you get caught in the political rhetoric.” Global business leaders in Davos appealed to governments, including the Obama administration, to make good on their commitment to conclude stalled trade liberalization talks this year and boost a world economic recovery.

But trade negotiators were skeptical, citing the impact of unemployment in developed countries, and political obstacles such as the US mid-term Congressional elections in November and Brazil’s presidential election.

Obama told Congress he would push for a world trade agreement that opened up global markets, but he did not mention the 2010 target date set by the G20.

Meanwhile, the US Senate narrowly voted Thursday to allow the United States to borrow another $1.9 trillion, boosting the national debt ceiling to a historic $14.3 trillion.

All 58 Democrats and their two Independent allies voted in favor of the increase, which was expected to avert the need for another politically difficult vote on the debt before the November mid-term elections.

Thirty-nine Republicans voted against the measure, while one, Senator Mike Enzi, did not vote.

The measure, an amendment to a House of Representatives bill that would have hiked the limit by a fraction of that amount, must also be approved by the lower chamber before it can go to Obama to sign into law.

Obama, who inherited a US economy on the brink of collapse, has presided over a first year in office that saw the budget deficit rise to $1.4 trillion — a sum worth more than India’s gross domestic product.

The wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, as well as a massive injection of cash to keep the wheels of the US economy rolling, have exploded government’s spending while revenues have shrunk with the economy.