Obama, Bush to Discuss White House Handover

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Washington,: Barack Obama will hold his first post-election meeting with President George W Bush on Monday, with the latter promising a civil handover of power.

Bush, who invited the President-elect to the White House to discuss the transition, in his weekend radio address applauded Obama's election victory as a "triumph".

"He can count on my complete co-operation as he makes his transition to the White House," said the outgoing leader, who announced that he and his successor would also discuss Iraq and the global economic crisis in their first post-election face-to-face talks on Monday.

Bush told about 1,000 aides during an emotional thank-you speech on Thursday that they needed to bring Obama's team up to speed on critical matters like the war and the economic meltdown.

"I look forward to discussing those issues with the President-elect early next week," said Bush, who will hand the keys to the White House to the first black US President on January 20.

Obama responded in a statement that he and his wife Michelle Obama "look forward to meeting with President Bush and the First Lady on Monday to begin the process of a smooth, effective transition."

"I thank him for reaching out in the spirit of bipartisanship that will be required to meet the many challenges we face as a nation," Obama said.

The meeting will be Obama's first at the White House since his decisive November 04 victory.

But as both incoming Democrats and outgoing Republicans struck a tone of civility, Obama's transition chief signaled that the President-elect could wipe away some hallmarks of the Bush years, including a ban on embyronic stem cell research and moves to open new lands to oil drilling.

The move could signal a swift change of course after eight years under the Bush administration, even as top aides stressed Obama's bipartisan aims and predicted that the new Cabinet could contain familiar faces, particularly at the Pentagon.




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