Obama plunges into agenda at home and abroad

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. President Barack Obama on Wednesday plunged into Israeli-Palestinian peace diplomacy on his first full day in office and looked poised to order the closing of the internationally condemned military detention camp at Guantanamo.

Acting swiftly on Day One after his inauguration, Obama also summoned his economic team and war council to press ahead with plans for rescuing the battered economy and ending the unpopular war in Iraq.

With his prompt attention to the decades-old Middle East conflict, he made clear it would be a top foreign policy priority among the litany of problems he inherited from his Republican predecessor George W. Bush.

Obama -- who had vowed a bolder pursuit of Israeli-Palestinian peace than Bush -- called Israeli and Arab leaders to commit to "active engagement" and to promise his help in consolidating the Gaza ceasefire.

And Obama's immediate focus on Guantanamo, where the harsh treatment of terrorism suspects under the Bush administration damaged America's moral standing in the world, showed his determination to clean up the U.S. image abroad.

"He pledged that the United States would do its part to make these efforts successful, working closely with the international community," White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said of Obama's quick foray into Middle East diplomacy.

Obama's packed agenda signaled the Illinois Democrat was serious about meeting his promise to break sharply with Bush's policies at home and abroad.

He also continued filling out the top spots in his Cabinet. Hillary Clinton won overwhelming U.S. Senate approval as secretary of state, despite renewed Republican concerns about potential conflicts of interest created by overseas fundraising by her husband, former President Bill Clinton.

As part of Wednesday's burst of activity, Obama's aides circulated an unsigned draft executive order that would set a one-year deadline for closing the Guantanamo prison, opened by the Bush administration after the September 11 attacks of 2001.

The camp at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba, which Obama had vowed to shut down, had drawn condemnation from human rights groups for interrogation methods like "waterboarding" -- or simulated drowning -- that they said amounted to torture.

The Obama administration would also start an immediate review on how to deal with the remaining prisoners held there, according to the draft order obtained by Reuters.

MIDEAST ENGAGEMENT

Obama made clear his Middle East strategy would be different from Bush, who was faulted by critics for taking a largely hands-off approach to peacemaking for much of his eight years in office. A final failed push for a peace deal was widely seen as too little, too late.

Obama spoke to Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak and Jordan's King Abdullah not long after he stepped into the Oval Office for the first time since his historic inauguration as the first black U.S. president.

He is expected to name a Middle East envoy soon, with former U.S. Sen. George Mitchell widely considered his choice for the job.

On the domestic front, with markets volatile and job losses mounting, Obama held a late afternoon meeting with top economic advisers to try to chart a course out of the worst economic crisis in decades.

Treasury Secretary-nominee Timothy Geithner, appearing before a Senate panel for a confirmation hearing, said the government's response would be made in coming weeks. Obama's advisers have been working with the Democratic-led Congress on an $825 billion fiscal stimulus package.

Geithner, president of the New York Federal Reserve Bank, also apologized for "careless mistakes" in underpaying taxes, which has cast a cloud over his nomination. But senators said they saw no reason he would not be confirmed later this week.

With Iraq also high on the agenda, Obama planned to discuss withdrawal strategies with Defense Secretary Robert Gates and top commanders on Wednesday.

Obama has said he favors a 16-month timetable for the withdrawal of U.S. combat troops from Iraq, and U.S. officials said that in his meeting with military leaders he would discuss the possibility of accelerating that departure.

Obama also will discuss plans to bolster troops in Afghanistan, where the Taliban is resurgent and which critics said Bush neglected because he was distracted by Iraq.

When Obama entered the Oval Office on Wednesday, he found a note left for him by Bush that was in an envelope marked "To: #44, From: #43."

Before plunging into his White House duties in earnest, Obama attended a prayer service at Washington's National Cathedral, a traditional morning-after-inauguration event.

Later, at a televised event to welcome new White House officials, Obama announced he was freezing the pay for senior White House staff and tightening up rules for former lobbyists who work in government -- an effort to make good on campaign promises for ethics reform.

(Additional reporting by Jeff Mason, Caren Bohan, John Whitesides, Mark Felsenthal and David Lawder; editing by David Wiessler)