But while Obama has moved quickly to assemble his White House staff and the beginnings of a cabinet, he is lagging behind even the chronically late President Bill Clinton in bringing clarity to the role his vice president will play.

So far, Biden has not been given a defined portfolio, the way Al Gore was given the environment and technology in 1992. And Obama’s aides say they do not expect Biden to assume the kind of muscular role that Vice President Dick Cheney has played over the last eight years, although he is expected to put out a number of fires.

“I’m sure that there will be discrete assignments over time,” said David Axelrod, a senior adviser to the president-elect. “But I think his fundamental role is as a trusted counselor. I think that when Obama selected him, he selected him to be a counselor and an adviser on a broad range of issues.”

Biden has spent much of the three weeks since the election in Chicago, where he has worked closely with Obama. With Obama having settled on Senator Hillary Clinton as secretary of state, Biden, whose most recent Senate post was chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, has privately told people that he recognises he will not be the point man on foreign policy.

The Vice-President-elect has been keeping up with his outreach to foreign leaders; two weeks ago he called the three leading candidates for Prime Minister of Israel, Tzipi Livni, Benjamin Netanyahu and Ehud Barak.

Biden is spending most weekdays in Chicago, where he stays in a hotel and has lunch once a week with Obama. During the days, Biden, Obama and a coterie of advisers are in the team's transition offices, going through possible hires. Biden has been involved in cabinet and policy decisions, offering advice to the president-elect, aides said.

Obama’s aides say Biden has backed the decision to appoint Hillary as secretary of state.

“If he had made an argument against it, it would have carried a lot of weight,” a senior aide to the transition said. “He was totally in support of it.” The relationship between Obama and Biden, aides to both men insist, is very strong.