WASHINGTON: Barack Obama was to take his first steps in the Oval Office on Monday and hold talks with US President George W. Bush just 71 days before inheriting two wars and a global economic crisis.

The 43rd US president and First Lady Laura Bush were to roll out a red carpet welcome at 2:00 pm (1900 GMT) for Obama and wife Michelle Obama in a political rite of passage loaded with special meaning and tensions this year.

After a two-year campaign spent pounding at Bush’s “failed policies,” the Democrat is set to become the first American African president on January 20 in the first handover of power since the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks.

Bush, who for years has denounced Iraq withdrawal timetables like the one offered by his successor as a surrender to terrorists, reportedly plans a wave of last-minute initiatives to advance his Republican party’s agenda.

But both leaders have shown that they will observe political custom, setting aside their deep differences and any resentments in public, and share an in-depth discussion in private of the world of challenges that awaits Obama.

Bush on Saturday hailed this successor’s victory as a “triumph” in US history and promised “my complete cooperation” in ensuring a “seamless” transition with a special focus on national security and economic turmoil.

“I’m going to go in there with a spirit of bipartisanship, and a sense that both the president and various leaders of Congress all recognise the severity of the situation right now and want to get stuff done,” Obama said last week.

The president-elect seized a chance at a rare moment of family routine, dropping young daughters Malia and Sasha at their Chicago school for the first time since his decisive November 4 victory - a reminder that the next First Family will be the youngest in decades.

Obama was to fly to Washington and then fly back after his meeting with Bush, during which Michelle Obama was to tour the residence section of the 132-room mansion with Laura Bush.

Despite the choreographed political truce, a top Obama aide signalled that the president-elect could wipe away some hallmarks of the Bush years, including curbs on federal funding for embryonic stem cell research and moves to open new lands to oil drilling.

Transition chief John Podesta said on Sunday that Obama would target policies that “are probably not in the interest of the country” and was reviewing Bush’s executive orders for possible changes or outright repeals.

“Every president has the prerogative to change policies. That’s nothing unusual. That happened in our administration, too,” said Bush spokeswoman Dana Perino, who defended current policy as “carefully considered.”

Obama has already blended talk of urgent action to confront the global economic crisis with notes of caution on foreign policy, including relations towards Iran, while underlining that he is not yet president.

At the same time, he has called for an economic stimulus package to help Americans struggling in the grips of the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression of the 1930s - a step Bush has thus far has rejected.

The two leaders were also expected to talk about the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

The Monday meeting comes earlier than usual, and far earlier than Bush’s own similar talks with then-president Bill Clinton, which came in late December after the US Supreme Court ended a drawn-out vote count.

Clinton told reporters as he and his successor met in the Oval Office that a key part of the discussion would be North Korea - and it may be so again in 2008, with a denuclearisation deal moving forward in fits and starts.

Clinton also boasted of the health of the US economy - while Bush was expected to discuss the looming November 15 summit of richest nations and largest developing countries in Washington to discuss the global meltdown.

The president-elect has not been inside the Oval Office, but recalled in his memoirs “The Audacity of Hope” a memorable visit to the White House for a breakfast for new senators shortly after the 2004 election.

Bush called him over, introduced him to Laura Bush, got some hand sanitizer from an aide, and offered it to the bemused Illinois senator.

“Good stuff, keeps you from getting colds,” said the president. “Not wanting to seem unhygienic,” Obama wrote, “I took a squirt.”

Bush also gave chilling advice to the up-and-coming Democrat, warning that his stunning rise meant people would “start gunning for you” and cautioning: “Everybody’ll be waiting for you to slip, know what I mean, so watch yourself.” - AFP/de

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SINGAPORE: Pedestrians and motorists passing by the City Hall on Monday afternoon were greeted by a curious sight - giant maggots were seen crawling down the building’s entrance.

These maggots are part of a sculptural installation by Vietnamese artist Pham Ngoc Duong and were first shown in Hanoi in 2004.

Since maggots signal rot and decay, the work is a metaphorical reference for corruption in the artist’s home country.

Here in Singapore, Pham’s innocuous looking creatures have been a source of amusement for many visitors, as the maggots make their way along the red carpet.

The carpet is actually part of the work, signalling a flip of the social order where the lowest creature is given a VIP welcome.

This and other intringuing works are on display at various locations of the Singapore Biennale which runs till November 16.

-CNA/yt

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TAIPEI: Taiwanese pro-independence activists plan to stage their biggest rally Saturday since President Ma Ying-jeou took office as his China-friendly government readies the red carpet for a top Beijing envoy.

Organisers say they expect half a million people to take to the streets of the capital Taipei to protest against China’s continued claim of sovereignty over the self-ruled island.

If the numbers turn out as predicted, it would be the biggest rally since Ma’s administration swept into power in May, ending the eight-year presidency of Chen Shui-bian whose independence rhetoric frequently angered Beijing.

“We hope to use this occasion to display our power,” said Cheng Wen-tsang, spokesman for the main opposition Democratic Progressive Party (DPP).

“We want Chen Yunlin to know that he is not welcomed by Taiwan people,” he said, referring to the Chinese negotiator whose planned visit here is bringing the protesters onto the streets.

Relations between Beijing and Taipei have warmed since Ma took office, and Chen Yunlin is due to hold talks on establishing closer shipping and air cargo links.

He is head of China’s quasi-official Association for Relations Across the Taiwan Strait, authorised by Beijing to handle civilian exchanges with Taipei in the absence of official contacts.

China and Taiwan split in 1949 at the end of a civil war, but China claims the island as part of its territory awaiting reunification and has threatened an invasion if it declares independence.

Government officials say Chen’s itinerary has yet to be finalised but press reports here suggest the talks will be in Taipei later this month or early in November.

Trade and travel links between China and Taiwan have been severely limited since 1949, but talks in June led to the first regular direct flights between the island and the mainland in nearly six decades.

Nevertheless emotions still run high, and Chen’s number two Zhang Mingqing was jostled and shoved to the ground by pro-independence activists during his visit to the island earlier this week.

John Chiang, a ruling party lawmaker and a grandson of former leader Chiang Kai-shek, said Chen’s visit would be the highest-level cross-Strait talks ever held here.

“If physical results can be reached here it would mark another milestone in the development of cross-Strait ties,” he enthused.

A government survey last week of 1,085 people showed about 50 per cent were positive about the visit, believing it would help Taipei further ease tensions with Beijing, relax trade, and make the island’s democracy better understood.

Premier Liu Chao-shiuan said Chen’s visit would not be cancelled because of the scuffles this week, although he admitted that “if I said the incident has not caused any negative impact on cross-Strait exchanges, nobody would believe that.”

George Tsai, political science professor at Chinese Culture University in Taipei, agreed, pointing to China’s response to the Zhang incident.

“Since Beijing has centred its condemnation on the small group of attackers rather than the Kuomintang government, cross-Strait exchanges are not expected to suffer a setback,” he said.

Saturday’s demonstrators will also be demanding that Beijing apologise to Taiwan for selling milk and other products tainted with the chemical melamine, normally used to manufacture plastics.

At least three children and one woman have fallen ill in Taiwan after drinking tainted Chinese products, according to a local hospital. On the mainland, four infants have died.

- AFP/yb

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