WASHINGTON, Nov 10: US President-elect Barack Obama visited the White House on Monday with his wife Michelle Obama, and held a private meeting with President George Bush during which the two leaders also discussed the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, aides said.

Usually, a meeting between the president and the president-elect is a political formality, aimed at assuring the Americans that a change at the White House does not affect the functions of the government.

But this year, it has assumed a huge historical significance as Mr Obama is the first black person elected to the White House.

President Bush and first lady Laura Bush welcomed Mr and Mrs Obama to the White House. 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.

In an earlier statement, Mr Bush described Mr Obama’s election as “an uplifting” event for America while Mr Obama said he would deal with the outgoing president with “a bipartisan spirit.”

While Mr Obama is at the height of his popularity, a poll released on Monday showed that Mr Bush had his first meeting with his successor at a time when his popularity had reached a new low.

A new national poll suggested that Mr Bush is the most unpopular president since approval ratings were first sought more than six decades ago. Seventy-six per cent of those questioned in a CNN/Opinion Research Corporation survey released on Monday disapprove of how President Bush is handling his job.

Aides for both the leaders, however, indicated that such surveys do not reduce the importance of the meeting which was much more than a historical formality.

The two leaders, they said, held “serious talks” on the issue confronting America, which included the current financial crisis and the war on terror.

John Podesta, who leads Mr Obama’s transition team, told the media that the Obama-Bush meeting covered “a broad range of issues.”

White House press secretary Dana Perino also confirmed that matters of public importance were also discussed in this “private meeting” between the two leaders but she refused to disclose the contents.

“I don’t think any of us can understand what it’s like for two people ... who understand what it’s like to be the commander in chief, to be the leader of our great country,” she said.

“It’s clear that we need to stabilise the economy, to deal with the financial meltdown that’s now spreading across the rest of the economy. The auto industry is really, really back on its heels,” Mr Podesta said.

He told CNN that Mr Obama will push Congress to enact “at least part” of an economic package before he takes office in January, but said the problems Americans face need short- and long-term approaches.

Mr Podesta said Obama’s team will be “looking at — again, in virtually every agency — to see where we can move forward, whether that’s on energy transformation, on improving health care, on stem cell research.”

Mr Podesta said there’s a lot the president could do without waiting for Congress, and voters can expect to see Mr Obama do so to try to restore “a sense that the country is working on behalf of the common good.”