WASHINGTON - BARACK Obama heads to the White House for his first postelection meeting with President George W. Bush this week, as Americans await signals of how their new leader will confront the overwhelming array of challenges facing the United States.

While the president-elect vowed on Friday to make a second economic stimulus package his first order of business after he takes office in January, unemployment climbed to the highest level in more than a decade.

The US stock market continued wobbling on a mainly downward trajectory, home prices continued sinking and global challenges did not abate.

To that end, Mr Obama spoke on Saturday with Russian President Dmitry Medvedev part of an ongoing series of telephone dialogues with world leaders, whose actions going forward will play heavily on the next president's ability to concentrate on US domestic concerns from taxes, to health care, to vast spending on restructuring energy policy even as the federal government hemorrhages money to prop up the nation's crumbling financial infrastructure.

After speaking with Mr Medvedev, a Kremlin statement said Mr Obama and the Russian leader 'expressed the determination to create constructive and positive interaction for the good of global stability and development' and agreed that their countries had a common responsibility to address 'serious problems of a global nature'.

According to the Kremlin statement, Mr Medvedev and Mr Obama believe an 'early bilateral meeting' should be arranged.

Mr Obama's office did not issue a statement describing the discussion and a Kremlin spokesman declined to elaborate or say when such a meeting could take place.

A Bush administration plan for setting up a missile shield close to Russia's borders has badly frayed US-Russian relations.

On Wednesday, the day after Mr Obama's election, Mr Medvedev threatened to move short-range missiles to Russia's borders with Nato allies even as the US offered new proposals on nuclear arms reductions as well as missile defence.

Allowing Russian observers at planned missile defence sites in Poland and the Czech Republic were among them, US officials said.

During the presidential campaign, Mr Obama expressed skepticism about the system, saying that it would require much more vigorous testing to ensure it would work and justify the billions of dollars it would cost.

Obama foreign policy adviser Denis McDonough said on Saturday that Mr Obama had 'a good conversation' with Polish President Lech Kaczynski about the American-Polish alliance but that Obama had made no commitment on the missile shield plan.

'His position is as it was throughout the campaign, that he supports deploying a missile defense system when the technology is proved to be workable,' Mr McDonough said.

That was in contrast to a statement issued by the Polish president. Mr Kaczynski said Mr Obama 'emphasised the importance of the strategic partnership of Poland and the United States and expressed hope in the continuation of political and military cooperation between our countries. He also said that the missile defence project would continue'.

Mr Bush wanted construction of a European missile shield - installations would be in Poland and the Czech Republic - to begin before he left office in January with a completion date of 2012.

Experts in the Defense Department believe more interceptor testing is required, according to reports over the summer. Additional tests could delay the programme for years.

On Saturday, US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice met with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov at an Egyptian Red Sea resort in an effort to ease escalating tensions in the final weeks of the Bush administration. Mr Obama takes office on Jan 20.

Mr Lavrov said Russia was not satisfied with the latest US proposals on nuclear arms reduction and missile defence, but declared that positions expressed earlier by Mr Obama provide hope for a 'more constructive' approach, Russian news agencies reported on Sunday.

Mr Lavrov said there would likely be further consultations on defense issues with the US this year, but suggested agreements were no likely until after Mr Obama takes office.

'We have paid attention to the positions that Barack Obama has published on his site. They instill hope that we can examine these questions in a more constructive way,' RIA-Novosti quoted Mr Lavrov as saying. -- AP