WASHINGTON - TEN people will be rubbing shoulders with dignitaries and stars at US president-elect Barack Obama's swearing-in next month if they win a contest launched on Tuesday by the presidential inaugural committee.

'You and a guest could be flown to Washington DC, put up in a hotel and be part of this once-in-a-lifetime event', in exchange for submitting an essay about the meaning to them of the inauguration, an announcement on the inaugural committee's website says.

Contestants have to be US citizens or permanent residents aged 18 or older, and the essays have to be submitted electronically by January 8 on the website of the inaugural committee.

It was unclear where the winners of the contest would stay within walking distance of the Capitol, where the swearing-in ceremony will be held, but if they do, they would be spared the 'crush-level' crowds that officials have predicted will pack Washington's public transportation system on January 20.

'DC's subway system ... is expecting 'crush-level' crowds' for the inauguration, inaugural officials said in a statement issued late on Monday.

'Be prepared to wait for space on a train for long periods of time, during which you will have to stand in close proximity to several thousand people,' the statement said, suggesting walking as the best way to get to the ceremony for those staying near the Capitol.

The lucky contest winners will not have to brave the crowds on the National Mall because they will be part of an elite 240,000 guests with coveted tickets for seats for the swearing-in ceremony that will take place on the west-facing side of the Capitol.

Inauguration organisers said on Monday they expect 'a million or more people to view the inauguration from the National Mall ... along with hundreds of thousands of others who plan on watching the inaugural parade down Pennsylvania Avenue'.

Officials initially put the numbers of inauguration day visitors to Washington as high as five million, but have since scaled back their estimates.

Security officials have ensured that they are ready to handle crowds of any size.

Entrants to the essay contest are asked to make a donation to the inaugural fund, even if doing so will not affect their chances of winning, according to the small print at the bottom of the website.

The inauguration organising committee says Mr Obama's swearing-in ceremony and the balls and other events that will take place around it will be funded by individuals, not by lobbyists, corporations, political action committees or labor unions, as has been the case for past inaugurations.

That, they say, is a first, as is the unprecedented transparency of listing all donations in excess of US$200 (S$287.27) on the official inauguration website.

Individual donations have been capped at US$50,000 and bundled donations - where one donor gathers contributions from many individuals in a corporation or community - at US$300,000.

People from all walks of life and all ethnicities are bucking the trend to pinch pennies as the United States weathers its worst economic slump since the Great Depression in the 1930s and donating to the inaugural fund for Mr Obama, the first African-American elected to the White House.

According to media reports, individuals have donated US$21 million to defray the costs of the inauguration.

Hollywood actress Halle Berry and director Steven Spielberg have each given the maximum US$50,000, and Aids activist and former basketball star Earvin 'Magic' Johnson has donated US$25,000, the list of individual contributors shows.

Contributions have also come from the likes of Menjinder Bhambra, who lists his employer as an Illinois gas station and gave US$500, and Nasser Saber of the Egyptian American Group, who gave US$1,000.

And someone at Sarah Lawrence College in New York whose gave their name as Franklin Roosevelt - the same as the president whose New Deal helped to drag the United States out of the Great Depression - donated US$500. -- AFP