Senate Republicans, Obama to meet on fiscal issues Friday

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Barack Obama will meet with Senate Republicans on Friday at 11:15 a.m. EDT (1515 GMT) to discuss how to end the U.S. government shutdown and a looming deadline to raise the nation's debt limit, a Republican spokesman said. "That's a good start, but only if it means he's decided to drop his refusal to negotiate on solutions," Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell said in a statement. "But if this is a meeting where he simply reiterates that he won't negotiate, this meeting will not be productive," McConnell said. (Reporting by Steve Holland, Roberta Rampton; Editing by Doina Chiacu)