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Obama says will confront economic woes head-on

President-elect Barack Obama addresses questions from the media during his f...
By Deborah Charles and Caren Bohan, Reuters
47 minutes ago
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CHICAGO — U.S. President-elect Barack Obama said on Friday the United States was facing one of its greatest economic challenges and vowed to confront the crisis head-on as soon as he takes office in January.

Investors are awaiting Obama's choice of Treasury secretary who will spearhead economic recovery, but Obama made clear he would not be rushed into making hasty appointments.

"I want to move with all deliberate haste, but I want to emphasize deliberate as well as haste," he said.

At his first news conference since being elected on Tuesday, Obama noted the latest Labor Department figures which showed that U.S. unemployment hit a 14-year-high in October after employers slashed jobs by an unexpectedly steep 240,000.

"We are facing the greatest economic challenge of our lifetime and we're going to have to act swiftly to resolve it," Obama said, as his team of economic advisers, who include businessmen and economists, stood in a line behind him.

The brief news conference in Chicago followed a meeting with his 17-member transition economic advisory board on how to tackle the worst economic crisis confronting the United States since the Great Depression of the 1930s.

Obama said he wanted the Democrat-controlled U.S. Congress to pass a second stimulus package as soon as possible to stabilize the economy, which analysts say may be in deep recession by the time he is inaugurated on January 20.

"We are going to need to see a stimulus package passed either before or after the inauguration. I want to see a stimulus package sooner rather than later."

With U.S. automakers also reporting billions in losses on Friday, Obama urged the Bush administration to accelerate a $25 billion retooling assistance plan already passed by Congress.

The automakers are lobbying for up to $50 billion to prevent a collapse that could cost over two million jobs.

In his first foreign policy pronouncement as president-elect, Obama called for an international effort to prevent Iran from developing a nuclear weapon, a day after Iran's president urged him to implement a "fairer" U.S. policy in the Middle East.

Obama, who has said he does not rule out direct talks with Iran's leaders, also called on Tehran to end what he called the country's support for terrorist organizations.

Obama said he would be reviewing a letter from Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, congratulating him on his election, and would "respond appropriately." But he said the U.S. approach to Iran could not be done in a "knee-jerk" fashion. "I think we've got to think it through," he said.

(Additional reporting by Ross Colvin, Donna Smith, Kristin Roberts and Andrew Quinn in Washington, Pedro Nicolaci da Costa in New York, editing by Alan Elsner)

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