Coming face-to-face for the first time after the November four elections, President-elect Barack Obama and his defeated rival John McCain on Monday, pledged "a new era of reform" to solve the US economic crisis and safeguard national interests.
After a private meeting at the President-elect's transition headquarters in chicago, Obama and McCain said Americans are looking for their leaders to come together and "change the bad habits of Washington."
The two leaders, in a joint statement issued after their first meeting since the elections, said they hoped to work together on challenges like the financial crisis, creating a new energy economy and protecting the country's security.
Senator Lindsey Graham, a McCain ally, and Congressman Rahm Emanuel, Obama's choice for White House chief of staff, were also present at the meeting.
"At this defining moment in history, we believe that Americans of all parties want and need their leaders to come together and change the bad habits of Washington so that we can solve the common and urgent challenges of our time," it said.
"It is in this spirit that we had a productive conversation today about the need to launch a new era of reform where we take on government waste and bitter partisanship in Washington in order to restore trust in government, and bring back prosperity and opportunity for every hardworking American family," they said in the statement.
Receiving McCain at his office, Obama said he and McCain were "just going to have a good conversation about how we can do some work together to fix up the country and also to offer thanks to McCain for the outstanding service he has already rendered."
Asked if he planned to help the new administration to be headed by Obama, McCain said, "obviously".
Obama's private meeting with McCain just two weeks after the elections is seen as an early effort to reconcile with his one-time rival.
Obama and McCain spoke on phone on the election night after the 47-year-old Democrat won the landmark presidential polls, but have not met in person since a charity fundraiser in New York on October 16.
Obama, who is scheduled to be sworn-in as the first African-American US President on January 20 next, resigned his Senate seat from Illinois on Sunday.
Obama in his second radio address has indicated that his first priority would be to address the economic crisis facing the nation.
Image: US President-elect Barack Obama [Images] with former Republican presidential candidate John McCain [Images] at Obama's transition office in Chicago on November 17.
Photograph: Saul Loeb/AFP/Getty Images