Chinese state media says U.S. ignoring "debt bomb"

BEIJING (Reuters) - The United States has ignored a "ticking debt bomb" in admitting defeat in reining in the country's ballooning debt, Chinese state media said Tuesday, criticizing U.S. legislators for neglecting their duty to the world.

Monday, Republicans and Democrats on a 12-member congressional "super committee" said they were too divided to tackle trillion-dollar budget deficits and a national debt that is roughly equal to the U.S. economy.

China's official Xinhua news agency, in an English-language commentary, blamed the "miscarriage" on political wrangling ahead of a U.S. election season, and said it would overshadow flimsy market confidence around the world.

"America's nonsensical domestic political wrestling" has proved its inability to "step up and shoulder its responsibility" to help spur sustainable and balanced growth in a bearish world economy, the news agency said.

"Washington's political elites ... are obligated to muster the courage to defuse the ticking debt bomb and start to show the world they have the wisdom and determination not to further jeopardize the fragile global economic recovery," Xinhua said.

Such commentaries in state media do not represent official policy of China's ruling Communist Party but provide insight into government thinking.

U.S. lawmakers' failure to agree on $1.2 trillion in deficit reduction sets up a year of uncertainty on taxes and spending that could further rattle investors already shaken over euro zone debt woes.

The U.S. Congress is set to deliver those budget savings through automatic cuts to defense and domestic programs, but some Republicans have vowed to prevent them from hitting the military. Obama said he would veto any effort to do so.

"U.S. politicians have never shied from lecturing other countries about global responsibility, and now it is high time they showed a sense of true global leadership," Xinhua said.

(Reporting by Michael Martina; Editing by Robert Birsel)