Washington, Jan. 15 : Unlike recent White House occupants -- George W. Bush and Bill Clinton - Barack Obama has yet to provide The Times with the sort of free-wheeling, pre-Inauguration interview the paper has come to expect. And, there''s little expectation it will happen before Tuesday.

"We would certainly like it to happen," said Times political editor Dick Stevenson, "but the days are running short at this point."

Stevenson said that although The Times has put in multiple requests to the Obama team, and "pointed out the historical precedent for this," they've had no luck securing a sit-down.

When asked about the Times requests, incoming Press Secretary Robert Gibbs said that they've "answered more questions, from more reporters, than any transition has done in the history of the country, throughout our announcement process."

Obama has held more transition period press conferences-as many as five in one week-than his predecessors.

In January 2001, Times reporters David Sanger and Frank Bruni trekked down to Crawford to meet with then-incoming president Bush. There, they interviewed Bush for 75 minutes in his farmhouse, before venturing out on a 90-minute tour.

There wasn't such an outdoorsy vibe eight years earlier, when Times reporters headed down to Little Rock for an hour-long interview with Bill Clinton. Although Tom Friedman got the byline, there was an all-star cast of White House reporters at the table: Maureen Dowd, Gwen Ifill, Richard Berke, and the late Michael Kelly.

Since Election Day, Obama has only done one lengthy newspaper interview, with three reporters from the Tribune last month. That said, Obama''s given interviews to several television networks, including NBC, CBS, ABC, and CNBC. (ANI)