President-elect Barack Obama today met all the living US presidents and described the event as an "extraordinary gathering."

President-elect Barack Obama today met all the living US presidents and described the event as an "extraordinary gathering."

Obama stood in the Oval Office with President George W. Bush and three former presidents: Bill Clinton, George H.W. Bush and Jimmy Carter. The president-elect said all of them understand the pressures of the job and he looks forward to sharing time with them.

Bush was hosting a rare lunch for the leaders at the White House. He told Obama that all the presidents want him to succeed.

Obama and Bush held a private meeting before they were joined by the three former presidents.

Such a meeting of former chief executives has not happened in the White House since 1981.

The highly symbolic meeting less than two weeks before Obama's inauguration may provide a welcome relief from distractions that have buffeted the next president in the first days since he returned to the capital to focus on melding bipartisan support for an economic rescue plan that will cost taxpayers a much as a trillion dollars.

Obama has sought to strike a balance as the power curve bends his way. Before even taking office, he is publicly rallying Congress behind a massive economic stimulus plan. But he remains deferential to Bush on foreign affairs.

"You can't have two administrations running foreign policy at the same time," Obama said at a news conference just ahead of his meeting with Bush. "You simply can't do it."