Chicago: US president-elect Barack Obama will hold his first post-election news conference here today following a meeting with his top economic advisers, aides said.

As speculation mounted over the Democrat's pick of Treasury secretary, a statement yesterday from his office said Obama would address the press at 1:30 pm US time today (0100 IST Saturday) in a Chicago hotel. The news conference will follow the meeting with Obama's economic team including former Treasury secretaries Larry Summers and Robert Rubin, ex-Federal Reserve chief Paul Volcker and Google chairman Eric Schmidt.

Summers and Volcker are among the names being touted to take over as Obama's chief economic overseer as the Treasury dispenses a 700-billion-dollar bailout package for Wall Street.

New York Fed chief Timothy Geithner is also mentioned, along with Laura Tyson, who was chairwoman of the National Economic Council in Bill Clinton's White House. Other participants at today's meeting will be vice president-elect Joseph Biden, Michigan Governor Jennifer Granholm, and former Securities and Exchange Commission chairman William Donaldson.

Billionaire investor Warren Buffet will take part via telephone, the statement said. Since Obama's election triumph Tuesday, US and global stock markets have plunged on growing fears the world economy faces a deep and long recession despite efforts by the US government and Fed to shore up the banking system.

Top economic advisers to Obama are meanwhile expected to attend a White House summit of 20 nations, including India, on November 15, as world leaders attempt to thrash out a coordinated response to the crisis.

Source : PTI