In a move cheered by human rights activists, the administration also began circulating a draft executive order on Wednesday calling for a review of all cases at Guantanamo and the closure of the detention center within a year.
Discord in the Middle East was on Obama's agenda as well.
During the transition, he steadfastly refused to offer an opinion on the conflict in Gaza, noting there was only "one president at a time." But as president, one of his first acts was to place calls to the four foreign leaders to discuss ways to make an Israeli-Palestinian cease-fire endure. He told them he wanted to stop weapons from being smuggled to Hamas as a step toward a permanent end to the fighting, according to the White House.
Obama moved as well to put his own house in order. In a nod to the recession, he announced that about 100 administration aides earning more than $100,000 would have to forgo pay raises.
Speaking to his senior staff, Obama said, "However long we are keepers of the public trust, we should never forget that we are here as public servants, and public service is a privilege. It's not about advantaging yourself. It's not about advancing your friends or your corporate clients. It's not about advancing an ideological agenda or the special interests of any organization. Public service is, simply and absolutely, about advancing the interests of Americans."
He also rolled out new rules for his appointees, requiring them to sign a pledge meant to disrupt the "revolving door" by which lobbyists flow seamlessly into government and back into the lobbying business.
His aides are barred from lobbying any executive agency for the life of the Obama administration. That means an appointee who leaves the White House in, say, 2010 would be barred from lobbying the executive branch until 2017 if Obama were to serve two terms.
At present, officials who leave an agency or department cannot go back and lobby their old offices for at least one year.
"It's unprecedented," said Fred Wertheimer, president of the nonpartisan watchdog group Democracy 21. "It basically protects citizens against individuals entering public service and then converting their public service to personal financial gain when they leave."
Lobbyists who join his administration must wait two years before they can take part in any issue on which they lobbied.
