CHICAGO – Former campaign rivals President Elect Barack Obama and Senator John McCain met yesterday to discuss working together in the future,
in their first meeting since Obama beat McCain

in a bitter election race.

The two met in Obama's transition headquarters
in Chicago to discuss ways to reduce government waste, promote bipartisanship and find other ways
to improve government.

Obama said before the meeting that he and McCain planned "a good conversation about how we can
do some work together to fix up the country, and also
to offer thanks to Senator McCain for the outstanding service he's already rendered".

Obama and McCain sat together for a brief
picture-taking moment with reporters, along with Rahm Emanuel, Obama's incoming White House
chief of staff, and Senator Lindsey Graham, McCain's close friend. Obama and McCain were heard briefly discussing football, and Obama cracked that "the national Press is tame compared to the Chicago Press".

When asked if he planned to help the Obama administration, McCain replied: "Obviously."

After the meeting, Obama and McCain issued a joint statement saying: "At this defining moment in history, we believe that Americans of all parties want and need their leaders to come together and change the bad habits of Washington so that we can solve the common and urgent challenges of our time.

"It is in this spirit that we had a productive conversation today about the need to launch a new era of reform where we take on government waste and bitter partisanship in Washington in order to restore trust in government, and bring back prosperity
and opportunity for every hardworking American family," it said.

"We hope to work together in the days and months ahead on critical challenges like solving our financial crisis, creating a new energy economy, and protecting our nation's security."

Obama also acknowledged meeting with former Democratic primary rival Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton last week, but refused to say whether she
was being considered for secretary of state,
as has been widely reported. (AP)