WASHINGTON - The White House said Thursday that President Barack Obama has agreed to move his widely anticipated jobs speech from next Wednesday to Thursday to avoid partisan bickering and to focus on job creation steps.

The interest for the administration is not having a political back and forth, while Obama is focusing on measures to spur the economy, White House spokesman Jay Carney told MSNBC.

The White House announced Wednesday that in a letter to congressional leaders, Obama said he was going to lay out an economic plan intended to shore up job creation and economic growth at a joint session of Congress at 8 pm September 7.

The time period was the same for the next GOP presidential debate, sparking new partisan wrangling.

Hours after the announcement, US House Speaker John Boehner, a Republican, asked the White House to move the date back one day to September 8 to ensure there would be no parliamentary or logistical impediments.

"Today, the president asked to address the Congress about the need for urgent action on the economic situation facing the American people as soon as Congress returned from recess. Both Houses will be back in session after their August recess on Wednesday, September 7th, so that was the date that was requested," Carney said in a statement released Wednesday night.

"We consulted with the speaker about that date before the letter was released, but he determined Thursday would work better. The president is focused on the urgent need to create jobs and grow our economy, so he welcomes the opportunity to address a joint session of Congress on Thursday, September 8th and challenge our nation's leaders to start focusing 100 percent of their attention on doing whatever they can to help the American people," the statement said.

Experts held that the partisan clash on the jobs speech date was fresh evidence of upcoming partisan bickering on how to speed up the economic recovery.