Washington  - The scandal surrounding Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich has placed president-elect Barack Obama and his advisors on the defensive, as they face questions about their contacts with the embattled governor.

While there have been no indications that Obama or any of his staff engaged in wrongdoing, the intense media interest in the scandal has been an early distraction as Obama - only weeks from taking office - assembles his team and tries to focus on the economic crisis and other problems facing the United States.

When Obama took questions on Thursday, after announcing he'd chosen former senator Tom Daschle as secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services, all but one were about his home state's governor.

Federal authorities on Tuesday charged Blagojevich and his top aide with multiple counts of corruption-related charges, including trying to solicit bribes in naming a candidate to replace Obama's vacated seat in the Senate.

The charges left Obama on Tuesday having to deny any knowledge of Blagojevich's alleged illegal activities, and his staff has also been peppered with questions. Obama, who has called on Blagojevich to resign, has pledged to reveal any contact between members of his staff and Blagojevich's.

"What I'm absolutely certain about is that our office had no involvement in any deal-making around my Senate seat. That I'm absolutely certain of," Obama said Thursday. "That would be a violation of everything that this campaign has been about. And that's not how we do business."

Rahm Emanuel, selected to become Obama's White House chief of staff, refused to answer questions when pressed by the Chicago Sun- Times about whether he was the Obama advisor named in the criminal complaint against Blagojevich.

"I'm not going to say a word to you," Emanuel said at Chicago City Hall, where his children were performing in a concert. "I'm going to do this with my children. Don't do that. Im a father. I have two kids. I'm not going to do it."

Media reports Friday said Emanuel also was not a subject of the ongoing federal investigation.

Blagojevich allegedly sought contact with an Obama aide to let it be known he wanted a high-level position in the Obama administration if he appointed long-time Obama friend and advisor Valerie Jarrett to the Senate.

The Federal Bureau of Investigation spent weeks taping Blagojevich discussing the issue with his chief of staff, John Harris. In the criminal complaint, the Justice Department revealed Blagojevich's desire to secure political favours from Obama.

"They're not willing to give me anything except appreciation," he said of appointing Jarrett. "Fuck them."

Pennsylvania Governor Ed Rendell, also a Democrat, said Friday that Blagojevich's comment exonerates the Obama camp, but he also said Obama erred by not quickly revealing staff contacts with Blagojevich.

"The rule of thumb is whatever you did, say it and get it over with and make it a one-day story as opposed to a three-day story," Rendell said on MSNBC.

Rendell said "of course" Obama and his aides would communicate with the governor of his home state, as he does with Pennsylvania's representatives in Washington.

"They may have thought he was the craziest SOB (son-of-a-bitch) in the world," Rendell said. "But you still have contact with him." (dpa)