The New Nation - Internet Edition

AP, Jerusalem

The Palestinian president, Mahmoud Abbas, has received a courtesy phone call from President-elect Barack Obama, who confirmed that he would work for peace, a Palestinian official said Wednesday.

The conversation took place Tuesday. The official, Saeb Erekat, a senior Abbas aide, said Obama had thanked Abbas for the congratulations he had extended after the Nov. 4 election. Erekat added that the two men had "reiterated their commitment to continue to work" for an Israeli-Palestinian peace based on a two-state solution. Obama met Abbas and other Palestinian leaders when he visited the region in July. At a news conference with Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice in Ramallah on Nov. 7, Abbas said the Palestinians wanted the new administration to start addressing Middle East issues and the peace effort "immediately," so that time would not be wasted and previous efforts would not be in vain.

The departing Israeli prime minister, Ehud Olmert, Abbas's partner in negotiations, spoke with Obama on Nov. 6. They also discussed "the need to continue and advance the peace process, while maintaining the security of the State of Israel," a communiqué from Olmert's office said.

In reality, the yearlong Israeli-Palestinian negotiations, which have not resulted in a deal, are suspended pending the outcome of Israeli elections on Feb. 10.

AFP report from Washington: Barack Obama picked former Senate leader Tom Daschle to lead his high-risk drive to end the US healthcare crisis and stocked his White House staff with loyal campaign aides. The president-elect, who takes office in January, spent the day in his Chicago transition office, but a Democratic official said he had asked ex-South Dakota senator Daschle to be health and human services secretary. Obama was also reported to have candidates in mind to head the key departments of Homeland Security and Commerce, but the reports could not be immediately confirmed.

CNN, citing multiple sources familiar with the appointments process, said Obama was likely to name Democratic Arizona Governor Janet Napolitano, 50, to run the Department of Homeland Security. The department was created following the September 11, 2001 terror attacks on the United States.

And Chicago businesswoman Penny Pritzker, 49, who raised record amounts of money as Obama's national finance chairwoman for his campaign, is the leading candidate to be commerce secretary, the network reported.

Both women would accept the positions if offered, the sources told CNN.

Daschle, 60, will be tasked with shepherding healthcare reform legislation through Congress in line with Obama's campaign vow to revamp the US medical system and help 45 million Americans who have no health insurance.

The last major healthcare reform attempt by a Democratic president, piloted by Hillary Clinton during her husband Bill Clinton's administration, ended in a notorious failure.

More than a decade on, there was no indication Wednesday on whether the former first lady would accept Obama's overtures concerning the key post of secretary of state.

The Wall Street Journal reported former president Clinton had removed a barrier to the appointment by offering to submit his future charitable and business dealings to an ethics review if his wife became the top US diplomat.

Some analysts have questioned whether Bill Clinton's myriad business deals, donor lists and contacts with foreign governments could raise conflicts of interest if his wife became the face of US foreign policy.

More than two weeks after Obama's historic election victory, there was a morsel of comfort for his defeated rival John McCain, after the final vote totals finally nudged Missouri into the Republican's column.

The Arizona senator took the heartland swing state by a wafer-thin margin of 49.4 percent to 49.3 percent and no recount is expected.

The result, once certified, means the total in the state-by-state Electoral College total will stand at 365 to Obama and 173 to McCain. A total of 270 was needed for victory in the November 4 election.

Sixty-two days before Obama is sworn in on January 20, he announced a raft of new top staff appointments in the White House, and offered broad hints of the make-up of his national security council team.

David Axelrod, a Chicago political consultant who is perhaps Obama's closest aide after they first met in the early 1990s, will work in the White House as senior advisor to the president.

Greg Craig, another advisor who was in at the start of Obama's presidential campaign, will serve as special counsel-the president's top lawyer.