WASHINGTON - PRESIDENT-ELECT Barack Obama's incoming chief of staff, divisive Democrat Rahm Emanuel, reached out to Republicans on Thursday with an appeal for cross-party solutions to pressing challenges.

After meeting Republican senators in Congress, the hard-charging Illinois congressman said: 'Since I was named, I also have been reaching out and I have had about 20-plus phone calls with members of the Republican conference.'

Briefing reporters before heading into more meetings with Republicans in the House of Representatives, Mr Emanuel said 'as president-elect Obama has repeatedly said, the challenges for the country are large'.

But there was 'enough goodwill for ideas from both parties to solve those challenges', he said, listing education, healthcare, taxes, energy policy and national security as areas of cooperation with Republicans.

'Give us those ideas as we are formulating what we are going to do,' he urged members of the opposition party.

Mr Emanuel is known as a sharp-elbowed political operator who is fiercely committed to Democratic partisan ideals and often has harsh words for Republicans.

But in keeping with Mr Obama's pledges of bipartisan healing, Emanuel has been trying to mend fences before he leaves the House to take up his new job of White House chief of staff on January 20.

His meetings came as Democratic leaders in Congress wrangled over a bailout for the troubled auto industry as part of larger efforts to shore up the recession-bound economy. -- AFP