国际英语新闻：Obama, Bush wrap up talks at White House

WASHINGTON, Nov. 10 (Xinhua) -- U.S. President-elect Barack Obama and the outgoing President George W. Bush wrapped up their talks at the White House Monday, without making any comments to the public.

    Without going into the details, the White House spokeswoman Dana Perino said the meeting was "good, constructive, relaxed and friendly."

L-R: U.S. President George W. Bush, First Lady Laura Bush, Michelle Obama and president-elect Barack Obama stand outside the Diplomatic entrance of the White House in Washington. Obama, gearing up for his historic January 20 swearing-in, held his first face-to-face talks with Bush on Monday and got his first look at the Oval Office

Bush and Obama held a private meeting in the Oval Office, while the first lady Laura Bush gave the incoming first lady Michelle Obama a tour of the residence.

    The president and president-elect walked together along the colonnade by the Rose Garden before entering the Oval Office together.

    They briefly waved to reporters along the way.

    Obama and Bush spoke on camera following their meeting, which lasted for nearly two hours.

    An aide to Obama said they were "going to let the pictures speak for themselves."

    Before Obama arriving at the White House, crowds lined the streets of downtown Washington, cheering the president-elect as his motorcade made its way to and from 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.

    While Obama has been to the White House a half-dozen times since he won a Senate seat four years ago, it was his first time inside the Oval Office.

    Though leaving no comments, the common guess is that they had a substantive discussion not only about the transition of power, but also the critical issues facing the United States, especially the economy and a proposed stimulus package aimed at easing the country's financial woes.

    Indeed, the economic crisis is believed to be the reason why their chat came far sooner than usual, less than a week after Obama made history by becoming the first black man to be elected president of the United States.

    Both Laura Bush and Michelle Obama have two daughters, and the issues surrounding raising them in the public spotlight was expected to be a likely topic of discussion.

    The Bush twins, Jenna and Barbara, were 18 when Bush arrived at the White House in 2000.

President Bush takes President-elect Barack Obama into the oval office during a visit to the White House, November 10, 2008.

Malia Obama is 10 and her sister, Sasha, is seven, and they'll be the youngest children to live there since nine-year-old Amy Carter moved in after Jimmy Carter's 1976 election victory.

    The Obama girls weren't at the White House with their parents Monday.

    They were in school in Chicago, and Michelle Obama is looking at various schools in Washington, D.C., for her girls.

    The Obamas flew back to Chicago immediately following the visit.

    There was every reason to assume a meeting between Bush and the president-elect might be uncomfortable -- Obama has spent much of the last two years, after all, assailing just about every facet of Bush's presidency.

    Bush, for his part, is said to have remarked privately that Hillary Clinton would have been a better presidential nominee for the Democratic party due to her wealth of political experience.

    Obama is also said to be compiling a list of Bush policies he will likely reverse immediately upon taking office, although that's not unusual when a new president from an opposing party takes over the White House.

    Among the measures Obama is looking at overturning is a proposal that cuts funding to women's groups that counsel abortion in developing countries and reversing a ban on stem-cell research funding.

    Obama's advisers are also quietly working on a proposal to ship dozens, if not hundreds, of imprisoned terrorism suspects to the United States to face criminal trials, a plan that would make good on his campaign promise to close the Guantanamo Bay prison.

    The president-elect has made it clear there is only one president for now, and that's Bush.

    Obama, the first African American elected as U.S. president, will be inaugurated on Jan. 20.