Gabrielle Giffords makes dramatic appearance on House floor

Gabrielle Giffords made her first live television appearance on the House floor tonight, attending a vote on the debt stand-off compromise.

For the first time since she was shot in the head earlier this year, Ms Giffords made the jouey to Washington to attend the crucial 11th-hour vote.

Fellow lawmakers crowded around Ms Giffords to shake her hand when she appeared on the House floor moments before House passage of the compromise bill.

Applause: Giffords' appearance brought a human touch to an otherwise tense evening

Leaving: Gabrielle Giffords, prepares to enter a car as she leaves the U.S. Capitol after a vote on debt tonight

Swamped by colleagues and close friends she hugged and kissed fellow lawmakers as those in the chamber applauded.

Arizona Democrat Giffords, who was shot in the head in January while meeting with constituents in her district.

On her Twitter account, the brave congress woman wrote: 'The #Capitol looks beautiful and I am honoured to be at work tonight.'

After the votes were counted House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi called Giffords the 'personification of courage.'

She added: 'Thank you, Gabby.'

Ms Giffords appearance came after a  dramatic night in the chamber, with the House eventually passing a compromise bill to raise America's debt ceiling.

Composed: Gabrielle Giffords sits in a car with her husband Mark Kelly as she leaves the U.S. Capitol

Only last month Ms Giffords' chief of staff said the 41-year-old was unlikely to retu to work soon - if at all.

Her chief of staff, Pia Carusone said: 'She's living. She's alive. But if she were to plateau today, and this was as far as she gets, it would not be nearly the quality of life she had before.'

In the months after the shooting by a lone gunman in Tucson, Arizona, there was speculation Ms Giffords may run for the U.S. Senate seat soon-to-be-vacated by retiring Republican Jon Kyl.

Ms Giffords was well enough to attend two trips to Florida in May to see her husband, Nasa astronaut Mark Kelly, blast off on the Endeavour shuttle's last ever mission.

Before and after: Gabrielle Giffords is seen before the shooting and at TIRR Memorial Hermann Hospital in Houston, Texas the day after the launch of the shuttle Endeavour in June

However she was kept away from the public.

Ms Giffords was shot in the back of the head at point-blank range in an attempted assassination on January 8 in Tucson, Arizona, which left six people dead and 12 wounded.

After her husband retued safely to earth in June he immediately flew to Texas for an emotional reunion with his wife.

They had only been apart for 18 days, but Ms Giffords said the reunion had all the sweetness of a first date.

She woke early, dressed in jeans and a pretty black top - and was still putting on lipstick when Mr Kelly, wearing his blue post-flight suit, bounded down the hospital corridor to meet her.

A nurse said the couple seemed like 'newlyweds' as they hugged, kissed and held hands in Ms Giffords's room at the rehabilitation centre.

The astronaut said he was so excited he said he forgot his luggage when the car left the airstrip, and they had to tu round to collect it.

His wife's spokesman, C.J. Karamargin, said they held hands for two hours. He said: 'It was actually a very touching moment. They are smiling ear-to-ear and haven't let go of each other's hands.'

According to a nurse, Kristy Poteet, Ms Giffords had been excited all day. In the moing she saw a photo of the shuttle on the front page of a newspaper and clutched it to her heart.