(Corrects spelling of Emanuel throughout)

By Andy Sullivan

WASHINGTON, Nov 9 (Reuters) - President-elect Barack Obama's chief of staff on Sunday said any economic stimulus package that the U.S. Congress passes in the next two months should not be tied to a free-trade agreement with Colombia.

Illinois Rep. Rahm Emanuel, who will serve as Obama's top White House aide, said Congress needs to extend unemployment benefits and help states pay health-care bills when it returns for a temporary session later this month, to ease the pain of an economy sliding into recession.

Emanuel rejected a Republican proposal to link the stimulus package with the Colombian free trade deal, which has failed to pass Congress due to Democratic concerns that it does not adequately protect labor interests.

"You don't link those essential needs to some other trade deal," Emanuel said on ABC's "This Week."

Congress should include a middle-class tax cut and job-creating construction programs in a broader economic stimulus package in January, he said.

Emanuel said the Obama administration will move swiftly to expand health-care coverage, reform education and overhaul U.S. energy policy when it takes office on Jan. 20.

"This ... crisis provides the opportunity, as the president-elect has said repeatedly, to do things that Americans have pushed off for years," he said.

In February, Congress and President George W. Bush enacted a $168 billion stimulus measure, largely made up of tax rebates. Democrats argue that is not enough to deal with what could be the worst economic slump since the Great Depression.

Democratic leaders in Congress hope to pass at least $61 billion in new economic stimulus funding when it returns for a temporary session, possibly the week of Nov. 16. Senate Republicans blocked a similar measure in late September.

Obama's stimulus proposals have been estimated to cost around $190 billion.

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