AIDES TO US president George W Bush and president-elect Barack Obama have sought to play down tensions over leaked reports of their private conversation at the White House on Monday, with both sides denying that Mr Bush sought to link financial aid for the US car industry to Democratic support for a new trade deal with Colombia.
A number of US news organisations yesterday reported that Mr Obama had asked the president to use part of the money allocated to a Wall Street bailout to shore up ailing car manufacturers in Detroit.
The reports cited aides to Mr Obama who claimed Mr Bush said he would only help Detroit if Democrats in Congress dropped their opposition to the Colombia trade pact.
John Podesta, who is leading Mr Obama's transition team, yesterday dismissed the reports as inaccurate, insisting that the president had not sought to link the issues.
"While the topic of Colombia came up, there was no quid pro quo," he said.
Earlier, White House press secretary Dana Perino said the president did not believe the Wall Street bailout legislation allowed for targeted aid to individual industries. She added, however, that the administration was open to suggestions about how to help big US car makers such as General Motors and Ford, who are fast running out of cash.
"We understand that they're going through a very difficult time," Ms Perino said.
"There's been business decisions they've made over the years that have led to this situation, but we have gone as far as we can with the authority Congress has given us in order to help industries. We rushed through those regulations to write the rules so that they could apply for those loans.
"If they believe that that's not enough for them, they need to continue to work with Democrats, and then we'll see what they can come forward with."
Mr Podesta said Mr Obama did not plan to attend this week's global economic summit in Washington or to meet any foreign leaders on its margins.
He said White House officials were keeping the transition team fully informed about preparations for the summit but stressed that Mr Obama was reluctant to become personally involved in it.
"He will be in Chicago and he will not be having any meetings with the leaders who are coming, in Chicago or anywhere else," Mr Podesta said.
"We have one president at a time and it's important that the United States can speak for the United States at that summit."
Mr Podesta reaffirmed the incoming president's determination to close the detention centre at Guantánamo Bay but dismissed an Associated Press report that the transition team was considering proposals to use a "new system of justice" to try detainees currently held there.
Earlier, Mr Obama's senior foreign policy adviser, Denis McDonough, said the president-elect would wait until his national security and legal teams were in place before making any decision about how to deal with those currently held at Guantánamo.
"President-elect Obama said throughout his campaign that the legal framework at Guantánamo has failed to successfully and swiftly prosecute terrorists and he shares the broad bipartisan belief that Guantánamo should be closed," Mr McDonough said.
"There is absolutely no truth to reports that a decision has been made about how and where to try the detainees."
Mr Obama's transition team is employing 450 people at a cost of about $12 million (€9.57 million) but Mr Podesta said yesterday that the president-elect would not allow lobbyists to fund or influence the transition.
According to new rules announced by the team yesterday, federal lobbyists cannot contribute financially to the transition and cannot engage in lobbying during their work on the transition.
If someone has lobbied in the past 12 months, they are prohibited from working in the fields of policy on which they lobbied. If someone becomes a lobbyist after working on the transition, they will be banned from lobbying the administration for 12 months on matters on which they worked.
"President-elect Barack Obama has pledged to change the way Washington works and curb the influence of lobbyists," Mr Podesta said. "During the campaign, federal lobbyists could not contribute to or raise money for the campaign.
"Today, the president-elect is taking those commitments even further by announcing the strictest and most far-reaching ethics rules of any transition team in history."
The transition team has yet to announce rules governing the funding of Mr Obama's inauguration but Mr Podesta suggested that there would be strict limits on corporate contributions.
Mr Bush raised $42.8 million to pay for his second inauguration four years ago, more than 90 per cent of which came from corporations or executives.
Mr Podesta hinted that corporate contributions, which were capped at $250,000 for Mr Bush's inauguration, could be limited this time to $5,000 or $10,000.