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.