Obama makes historic White House visit

President-elect Barack Obama visited the White House this morning for his first post-election meeting with President George W. Bush, a strikingly symbolic moment in the transition of power.

The outgoing president and first lady Laura Bush greeted the newly elected president and his wife Michelle with smiles and handshakes, even as Obama's advisers reviewed some of Bush's executive orders with an eye to reversing them after he is sworn in on January 20.

The two men immediately headed to the Oval Office where they were expected to discuss the global financial crisis, the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and other challenges the Republican president will bequeath to his Democratic successor.

It was their first face-to-face encounter following Obama's resounding victory over Republican John McCain in Tuesday's election, which will make him America's first black president.

Obama, 47, had repeatedly attacked Bush's "failed policies" on the campaign trail and once said he had a lot to answer for after eight years in office.

Obama's aides say after taking office he will likely move quickly to roll back Bush's executive orders that limit stem cell research and expand oil and gas drilling in some areas.

There was no outward sign of tension, however, when the Obamas stepped from their limousine at the south portico. Earlier, they had been cheered by crowds of onlookers in some places as their motorcade sped through the capital.

"Good morning," Laura Bush chirped, though it was well past noon.

Bush and Obama strolled down the White House colonnade side-by-side, chatting amiably. They stopped briefly and waved to the cameras but said nothing to reporters. Bush then ushered Obama ahead of him into the Oval Office.

While their husbands met privately, the first lady led Michelle Obama inside the White House residence for a tour of what will soon be her family's new home.

Newly elected presidents traditionally visit the White House between election and inauguration but usually wait longer than Obama did. He came calling at Bush's invitation after only six days, underscoring a sense of urgency in the transition.

It will be the first wartime transfer of power in four decades and comes amid economic turmoil.

"Obviously the economy is going to be something that will be top of line for both of the leaders," White House spokeswoman Dana Perino told reporters before Bush and Obama met.

Financial markets, which are struggling in a global credit crisis, are awaiting news of Obama's appointments for key jobs such as Treasury secretary, but a spokeswoman for Obama said on Monday he would not make any Cabinet announcements this week.

Obama said in his first post-election news conference on Friday he would not be rushed into making hasty decisions.

Underscoring Obama's assertion he will not act as a shadow president during the transition, an aide confirmed what the White House had been saying that he will not attend a global financial summit in Washington on Nov. 14-15.

Bush, whose low approval ratings helped propel Obama to victory, has said he will do all he can to help in the changeover.

Obama had impugned Bush's leadership at every turn during the bitter election campaign, depicting McCain as the president's clone. Many analysts saw Obama's victory in part as a rebuke by voters of Bush's two terms in office.

But the two have made clear they are now setting politics aside.

Though visits by incoming presidents to the White House before taking office are a ritual dating back decades, there was little denying that Obama's tour carried special significance.

The son of a black father from Kenya and white mother from Kansas, Obama made history by winning the presidency, an achievement seen by many Americans as a breakthrough in US race relations.

Now he and his family will move into a stately white mansion that was built in part with the labor of black slaves and where several Southern-born presidents brought their plantation slaves as servants during the pre-Civil War era.

Bush has hailed Obama's victory as a "dream fulfilled" for civil rights, but he has also warned of the difficulties awaiting the president-elect.