Barack Obama enjoyed a “relaxed and friendly” meeting with President George Bush as he visited the White House for the first time since becoming US president-elect.

Barack Obama spent two hours having private talks with President George Bush today as he visited the White House for the first time since becoming US president-elect.

BARACK OBAMA will make his first visit to the White House as president-elect on Monday for talks with President George W Bush on crisis issues including Iraq and the economy, officials said.

The White House, under fire from Democrats and Republicans alike, has defended giving billions of bail-out dollars to banks that plan to reward shareholders and executives or even buy other banks.

US President George Bush called British Prime Minister Gordon Brown to urge co-ordination on efforts to solve the financial crisis spreading around the world, the White House said today.

The US federal takeover of troubled US mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac could have been prevented if Congress had acted on its recommendations, the White House said today.

US President George Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney will skip the Republican National Convention because of mounting concerns about Hurricane Gustav, the White House said today.

THE next US president will inherit a record budget deficit approaching $490 billion, according to a new Bush administration estimate.

INDIA’S government survived a hotly contested confidence vote yesterday, clearing the way for it to finalise a landmark nuclear energy deal with the United States.

US vice president Dick Cheney’s office pushed to delete references about the consequences of climate change on public health from congressional testimony, in a bid to play down the effects of global warming, a former environment expert claims.

President George Bush will probably attend the opening ceremony of the Olympic games in Beijing, The White House press secretary said today.

The White House press secretary most known for defending President George Bush on Iraq, Hurricane Katrina and a host of other controversies has produced a shock memoir damning his old boss on nearly every level.

Pope Benedict XVI told US bishops that the scourge of clergy sex abuse had sometimes been “very badly handled”.

Pope Benedict XVI said he was “deeply ashamed” of the clergy sex abuse scandal that has rocked the American church.

President George Bush has released $200m (€249) in emergency aid to help nations where surging food prices have worsened hunger and sparked violent protests.

US President George Bush has all but abandoned hope of a major agreement on missile defences during talks this weekend with Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Attempts to forge a road map for a new international climate-change agreement are entering their final day today amid accusations the US is trying to wreck the deal.

CIA director Michael Hayden, testifying in secret before the US Senate Intelligence Committee, failed to answer key questions about the destruction of secret videotapes showing harsh interrogation of terror suspects, the panel’s chairman said.

The extreme interrogation method used on a top al-Qaida captive was approved at the top levels of the US government, a former CIA agent claimed today.

US President George Bush told the leaders of Israel and the Palestinian territories he is personally committed to their mission of peace, urging them to stick with it and not lose sight of their goal.

Pakistan’s president was embarking on a new, five-year term as a civilian president today, after bidding an emotional farewell a day earlier to his job as chief of the army – the source of most of his sweeping political powers.

The US is working with North Korea to remove it from Washington’s blacklist of states sponsoring terrorism as American experts prepare to start disabling the Communist nation’s nuclear reactor, a top US diplomat said today.

Fidel Castro accused US President George Bush of plotting a new conquest of Cuba, in an essay published a day before the White House was to announce new plans to draw Cuba away from communism.

The White House has poured scorn on the Burma junta’s move to ease restrictions after its violent crackdown on pro-democracy demonstrators.

The White House has poured scorn on the Burma junta’s move to ease restrictions after its violent crackdown on pro-democracy demonstrators.

Burma’s military rulers today lifted a curfew and ended a ban on assembly, which were imposed last month during a brutal crackdown on pro-democracy protests.

US PRESIDENT George W Bush has backed Hillary Clinton to win the Democrat nomination for presidential candidate in next year’s elections.

President Bush has backed Hillary Clinton to win the Democrat nomination for presidential candidate in next year’s elections.

US president George Bush was surprised by the criticism levelled against him and his administration by former Federal Reserve chairman Alan Greenspan in his new book, the White House said on Monday.

The United States is helping build a prison in Afghanistan that would take some prisoners now at Guantanamo Bay, but the White House said today it was not meant as an alternative to the detainee facility in Cuba.

Italian riot police tonight used tear gas against anti-Bush demonstrators, disrupting an anti-globalisation protest in the centre of Rome.

The US President ordered flags flown at half mast today in honour of those killed in America’s deadliest shooting spree.

President Bush was described today as "shocked and saddened" by the mass shooting at Virginia Tech, the deadliest incident of campus violence ever seen in the US.

US President George Bush today invited Democrats to discuss their stand-off over a war-spending bill, but he made clear he would not change his position opposing troop withdrawals.

The chief White House lawyer floated the idea of firing all 93 US attorneys at the start of President George Bush’s second term, but the justice department objected and eventually recommended the eight dismissals that have generated a political firestorm two years later.

FORMER White House aide Lewis “Scooter” Libby was convicted yesterday of obstruction, perjury and lying to the FBI in an investigation into the leak of CIA operative Valerie Plame’s identity to reporters.

US Defence Secretary Robert Gates rushed back to Washington to give President George Bush advice on transforming US policy in Iraq after talks in the war zone with military and political leaders.

The White House today dismissed the idea of a televised debate between US President George Bush and Iranian leader Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, describing the proposal as a diversion.

The US is awaiting a formal UN deadline before seeking any new measures to coerce or punish Iran over its disputed nuclear programme, the State Department says.

The Bush administration says a proposal by Iran for nuclear negotiations falls short of UN demands that it cease uranium enrichment as the US began plotting unspecified “next moves” with other governments.

The Bush administration has been quietly tracking people suspected of bankrolling terrorism through a secret programme that gives the US government access to a massive data base of international financial transactions.