CHICAGO - PRESIDENT-ELECT Barack Obama said on Tuesday his administration would brook no further delay in tackling climate change after discussing global warming with former vice president Al Gore.

Sitting between Gore and his vice president-elect Joseph Biden following the hour-long meeting, Obama told reporters: 'All three of us are in agreement that the time for delay is over. The time for denial is over.

'We all believe what the scientists have been telling us for years now, that this is a matter of urgency and national security, and it has to be dealt with in a serious way. That is what I intend my administration to do,' he said.

Since his defeat in the 2000 presidential election, Mr Gore has been awarded a Nobel Peace Prize for his relentless efforts to combat climate change and starred in an Oscar-winning documentary called An Inconvenient Truth.

Mr Gore is thought unlikely to figure in Mr Obama's incoming administration, which takes office on Jan 20.

But the climate change crusader is winning a respectful new audience for his views as Mr Obama promises to unwind the environmental policies of President George W. Bush despite an economic recession hitting the United States. -- AFP