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

Obama, who will take office on January 20 with the country close to recession, urged Bush to back immediate emergency aid for the struggling U.S. automakers, The 'New York Times' reported.

The 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 met privately in the Oval Office for over an hour in talks thought to have encompassed the global financial crisis, the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and other daunting 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 the United States' first black president.

Obama, 47, had repeatedly attacked Bush's "failed policies" on the campaign trail, and the Illinois senator swept to power on a theme of change -- specifically, change from the unpopular president's approach to economics and foreign affairs.

Top congressional Democrats have asked the Bush administration to consider aid to the automakers through the financial bailout initiative that has so far covered banks and other financial services companies, and Obama urged Bush to act quickly at their meeting, according to 'The New York Times'.

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