Washington, December 24 : U. S. President-elect Barack Obama will be sworn into office on the same Bible as was used by Abraham Lincoln at his first inauguration in 1861.

The Presidential Inaugural Committee has made an announcement in this regard.

Obama is a great admirer of Lincoln.

"(The former president possessed) a humility about his approach to government, even before he was president, that I just find very helpful," CBS News quoted him as telling 60 Minutes'' Steve Kroft during an interview.

Washington - When president-elect Barack Obama takes the oath of office on January 20, he will use the same Bible that Abraham Lincoln used for his swearing-in ceremony.

Obama will be the first president to be sworn in using the Lincoln Bible since 1861, the Presidential Inaugural Committee (PIC) said Tuesday.

While there is no constitutional requirement for a Bible to be used at the swearing-in, presidents have traditionally done so, choosing a volume with personal or historical significance.

New York, Dec 23 : U. S. President-elect Barack Obama might have had pure holiday fun playing golf in Kailua, Hawaii, but an expert, who analysed his golf moves, has some suggestions for the Democrat to become the greatest golfing President.

Tom Patri, one of America''s top teachers and head golf instructor at Friar''s Head on Long Island, analysed a couple of snapshots and some video taken of Obama, who allegedly carries a 16 handicap.

He said that Obama's pictures revealed that he did not get a bunch of time to practice, but the way he held the club was much better than the average recreational player.

Washington, Dec 23: US Defence Secretary Robert Gates, who has been named to the same Cabinet post by the incoming President-elect Barack Obama's Administration, has asked experienced members of the Bush war team to stick around to smooth the transition process in the Pentagon.

Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates has asked most Bush Administration political appointees except those targeted for dismissal to stay on in the Pentagon until replaced by the Obama Administration in the coming months, The Washington Times reported.

Melbourne, Dec 23 : U. S. president-elect Barack Obama has been likened to George Clooney after photographs of him leaving a gym in Hawaii without his shirt surfaced on the Internet.

On the net, people are raving about the next US President's body.

Celebrity website Celebuzz claimed Obama was "the hottest president ever" while the Sun said "His buff chest and toned tum belie his 47 years and show he's got more in common with George Clooney than George Bush."

Washington, December 23 : People in Hawaii, a state in the U. S. that shaped Barack Obama's life, are banking on the President-elect's name to generate business.

To draw more and more tourists, Hawaiians have been arranging for Barack Obama-inspired ice cream flavours and special bus tours around his old Honolulu neighbourhood.

Air conditioned mini-buses full of tourists wind around the narrow streets of Makiki, and breeze past the school Obama attended and the apartment building where his grandparents raised him.

Some guides let tourists hop off to snap photographs in the lobby of the hospital where Obama was born.