Barack Obama, the US president, is scheduled to return to Washington on Monday after a Christmas family vacation in Hawaii.

After ending 2010 on a successful note he will now face the challenge of a dramatically different US Congress in the year ahead.

Saddled with a troubled economy and many campaign promises still unfulfilled, Obama will be forced to make compromises with the Republicans in order to get new legislation passed.

Al Jazeera's Patty Culhane looks at what's next. (Jan 03, 2010)