It was a busy day for Obama

CHICAGO — President-elect Barack Obama received his first top-secret briefing on national security Thursday, scheduled a meeting today with his economic advisers to be followed by a news conference and accepted an invitation for his wife and him to visit President Bush and Laura Bush at the White House on Monday.

The president-elect also talked by telephone with nine world leaders, who all had called to congratulate Obama for his election victory. Among the U.S. allies he spoke with were the top politicians in Israel, Japan and Mexico.

U.S. Rep. Rahm Emanuel, meanwhile, accepted Obama's offer to be his chief of staff. Obama said he picked Emanuel as his chief because "no one I know is better at getting things done than Rahm Emanuel."

Key sources also confirmed that Robert Gibbs, Obama's senior aide, is in discussions about becoming the voice of the White House as its press secretary.

A White House presence for David Axelrod, Obama's campaign mastermind, also was rumored Thursday as the longtime Obama friend considered moving to Washington.

Bush, meanwhile, warning that terrorists "would like nothing more than to exploit this period of change," said his talks Monday with Obama will cover such issues as the turmoil in the financial markets and the war in Iraq.

Bush has said he is determined to conduct an orderly transition. The White House wants to avoid a repeat of the reports that plagued President Clinton when he left office amid questions about whether members of his staff removed the letter W from some computer keyboards.

To that end, Bush has established a formal transition council that has sought advice from outside experts, among them a former Clinton chief of staff, Mack McLarty. McLarty on Thursday praised the effort as "more formal, more focused, more intense" than any he had seen, adding, "The times call for it."

The administration is providing transition offices in Washington, D.C., to the Obama team, and Congress provided roughly $40 million for transition-related activities.

Information from the Chicago Tribune

is included in this report.