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Talks centre on economic crisis as Obama calls on Bush

President-elect heads back to transition headquarters in Chicago.

  • AP
  • Published: 00:01 November 12, 2008
  • Gulf News

  • Image Credit: EPA
  • A White House handout picture shows US First Lady Laura Bush and Michelle Obama in the private residence of the White House on Monday.
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Washington: President-elect Barack Obama returned to Chicago to work on setting up his new administration after getting his first look at the Oval Office during a nearly two-hour meeting with President George W. Bush to discuss the transfer of power at a time of war and financial crisis.

As the 43rd and 44th US presidents held their first face-to-face talks since Election Day last week, the next first lady, Michelle Obama, talked with Laura Bush about raising daughters in the White House.

At the end of the highly symbolic visit, Bush walked Obama to a waiting black limousine for the trip to the airport and the return flight by jet charter to his transition headquarters in Chicago.

His team is working there to put together the next Cabinet and to fill the hundreds of jobs that come open in a change of administrations.

No statement made

Neither Bush nor Obama made a statement before or after their meeting.

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Obama's spokesman Robert Gibbs said the two men "talked extensively" about the economic situation and foreign policy.

Obama inherits from Bush an economy in deep crisis and wars that are far from won in Iraq and Afghanistan, among other problems, when he takes office on January 20.

Topics between them included the housing industry, foreclosures, the auto industry in crisis, as well as "the need to get the economy back on track," Gibbs said.

Obama's aides said the president-elect discussed with Bush the need for urgent action to help struggling US automakers. Gibbs said "it was a discussion about the broad health of the industry" that was not just limited to any one of the three largest US car makers.

As the visit began, Bush and Obama could be seen talking animatedly as they strolled alone under the White House Colonnade, pausing for pictures before entering the Oval Office for Obama's first visit to the presidential chamber.

Bush allowed Obama to enter the historic office first before they met alone, with no handlers or staff. It was Obama's first time in the storied workspace, even though he had been to the White House previously for events.

Laura Bush gave Michelle Obama a tour of the first family's living quarters.

Bush chief of staff Josh Bolten and Obama transition manager John Podesta, himself a former White House chief of staff under President Bill Clinton, held their own talks after standing off to the side together in the Rose Garden watching their bosses walk by.

Guantanamo: Rights groups up the ante

Barack Obama has made no decision on how to try detainees at Guantanamo Bay but remains committed to closing the prison, a senior foreign policy adviser said as human rights groups urged swift action.

Five human rights groups urged European governments to accept Guantanamo prisoners who cannot be sent home for fear of persecution, while a sixth group called on Obama to sign an order shutting the prison camp on the day he takes office.

"President-elect Obama, with a stroke of your presidential pen, on Day One of your administration, you can ensure that our government will be faithful to the constitution and to the principles upon which America was founded," the American Civil Liberties Union said in a full-page ad in The New York Times.

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