WASHINGTON - PRESIDENT-ELECT Barack Obama on Thursday promised 'a new beginning' when he takes over the White House in January and urged Americans to work together to overcome a deepening economic crisis.

'This weekend - with one heart, and one voice, the American people can give thanks that a new and brighter day is yet to come,' Mr Obama said in the weekly Democratic radio address, usually delivered on Saturday but released early for the Thanksgiving holiday.

His political hero, president Abraham Lincoln, established the holiday 'in one of the darkest years of our nation's history', 1863, during the US Civil War, Mr Obama said.

'This Thanksgiving also takes place at a time of great trial for our people,' Mr Obama said.

'We face an economic crisis of historic proportions.' 'That's why I am committed to forging a new beginning from the moment I take office as president of the United States,' the president-elect said.

Earlier this week, Mr Obama unveiled his economic team, including Mr Timothy Geithner as Treasury secretary and Larry Summers as chairman of the White House National Economic Council, and touted his plan to create 2.5 million jobs through a vast infrastructure spending program.

'But this Thanksgiving we are reminded that the renewal of our economy won't come from policies and plans alone - it will take the hard work, innovation, service and strength of the American people,' Mr Obama said.

'Times are tough. There are difficult months ahead. But we can renew our nation the same way that we have in the many years since Lincoln's first Thanksgiving: by coming together to overcome adversity; by reaching for - and working for - new horizons of opportunity for all Americans.'

American families gather on the fourth Thursday in November for a festive dinner of turkey, potatoes and pie, seen as commemorating the first harvest feast of English pilgrims in the new world in 1621.

Mr Obama spent Thanksgiving at home in Chicago with his wife, his two daughters, and dozens of relatives, Mrs Michelle Obama revealed on Wednesday in a interview with ABC.

'We're going to have at least 60 people at our house, like we do every year,' she said.

This year, she has excused herself from cooking, she said.

'This is the one year, don't you think - my husband ran for president - that I should have an out on cooking something for Thanksgiving,' the first-lady-in-waiting said.

Both Mr Obama and the current president, George W. Bush, were closely following events in Mumbai, where Islamic militants killed 125 people across the city and grabbed foreign guests in two luxury hotels.

The State Department said three Americans were injured in the attacks while Bush expressed condolences over the attacks and offered US assistance to India.

Mr Bush spent the holiday at the presidential retreat of Camp David in Maryland, where he placed telephone calls to members of the US armed forces deployed away from home and abroad, to thank them and wish them a Happy Thanksgiving, a White House statement said.

In his own Thanksgiving holiday radio address, delivered on Wednesday, Mr Bush said that what he will most miss after he leaves office on January 20 is being commander-in-chief of the military.

'Lately, I have been asked what I will miss about the presidency. And my answer is that I will miss being the commander-in-chief of these brave warriors,' Bush said.

Mr Bush also thanked the 'selfless members of our nation's armies of compassion' who reach out to the needy, adding: 'It is a testament to the goodness of our people that on Thanksgiving, millions of Americans reach out to those who have little.'

Mr Bush suggested Americans draw inspiration in the current financial troubles from the first US settlers 'who overcame hardships to create and sustain a free nation', and past US presidents like Abraham Lincoln who faced civil war but persevered to 'a new era of liberty'.

One of the most unpopular presidents in modern US history, Mr Bush in his last Thanksgiving speech from the White House said he was 'thankful for the good will, kind words, and heartfelt prayers that so many of you have offered me during the past eight years.' -- AFP