CHICAGO — President-elect Barack Obama has asked Rep. Rahm Emanuel, D-Ill., a member of the House of Representatives leadership team and a former Clinton White House adviser, to be his White House chief of staff, aides on Capitol Hill and other Democratic insiders said yesterday, as Obama quickly began the transition into office.

Neither Emanuel's staff nor Obama's would confirm the offer. Three Democratic insiders who are familiar with the offer — each speaking on the condition that they not be identified because they weren't authorized by the Obama team or by Emanuel to discuss the developments — said that while Emanuel was seriously considering the job, it was their understanding as of yesterday afternoon that he hadn't yet accepted it.

A respected political tactician with a reputation for ruthlessness, Emanuel could offer Obama, a relative Washington newcomer, an insider's knowledge of the levers of power. As a highly partisan and often abrasive figure, however, Emanuel also could detract symbolically from Obama's promise to move beyond partisanship and unite Democrats and Republicans.

In addition to advising Clinton, Emanuel, who was first elected to Congress in 2002, previously worked for Illinois Public Action, a consumer rights group; Paul Simon's Senate campaign; Chicago Mayor Richard Daley; and as the managing director of an investment bank. He led the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee in 2006, when Democrats gained control of the House.

Obama's appointments of secretaries of the treasury and defense, national security adviser and other posts are expected soon, perhaps by the end of this week, but none was announced yesterday.

Possible secretary of state picks include Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., and Sen. Richard Lugar, R-Ind. Retiring Sen. Chuck Hagel, R-Neb., and Democratic New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson also have been mentioned.

At the Pentagon, there has been discussion about Defense Secretary Robert Gates staying on for some months, although it's unclear whether he's willing to do so. Former Navy Secretary Richard Danzig, a top Obama adviser, also has been mentioned for defense chief.

A possible pick for White House national security adviser is James Steinberg, who was President Clinton's deputy national security adviser.

And the economic situation in the U.S. is so dire that Obama is expected to name his Treasury secretary quickly to assure Americans and financial markets that he is on the case.

Names mentioned include Larry Summers, who headed the Treasury in the Clinton administration and also headed Harvard University; Timothy Geithner, president of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, who was deeply involved in bank bailouts; Wall Street executive Jamie Dimon; Robert Rubin, who also headed Clinton's Treasury Department; Paul Volcker, former chairman of the Federal Reserve; and New Jersey Gov. Jon Corzine, a former Goldman-Sachs executive.

DETAILS OF TRANSITION

Obama advisers also formally announced some details of the Obama-Biden Transition Project. It's being organized as a 501(c)(4) group, headquartered in a large government office space in downtown Washington, although Obama is expected to name appointees in Chicago in the coming days and weeks.

The transition is being overseen by three people: John Podesta, a former chief of staff to Clinton and the president of the Center for American Progress, a liberal policy-research center in Washington; Valerie Jarrett of Chicago, an Obama friend and campaign adviser; and Pete Rouse, Obama's Senate chief of staff. The transition team also announced a 12-member advisory board.

As the fourth-ranking Democrat in the Democratic-controlled House, Emanuel was weighing whether to scrap a potential path to the House speakership against service to the country on behalf of the first black president. They both call Chicago home.

As the Democratic presidential nominee in 2004, Kerry helped catapult Obama into national prominence by selecting him as the keynote speaker for that year's Democratic National Convention. Kerry, the No. 3 Democrat on the Foreign Relations Committee, is a decorated Vietnam veteran with decades of foreign policy experience, who has reportedly expressed interest in the job.

He has publicly supported Obama's position of talking with leaders of rogue regimes such as Iran, and, though he voted for the invasion of Iraq in 2003, he said in a speech at the Democratic Convention that it was "the wrong war in the wrong place at the wrong time."

LUGAR CONSIDERED

During the last debate of the presidential campaign, Obama specifically cited Lugar, the ranking Republican on the Foreign Relations Committee, as someone who has shaped his ideas on foreign policy issues — along with Biden.

Lugar, who used to chair the committee, has distanced himself from certain Bush administration policies, supporting Obama's call to engage with Iran and pushing for more involvement in the peace process. At a talk last month at the National Defense University, he said, "to make diplomacy effective, we have to work constantly to ensure that we can apply a broad range of geopolitical leverage when we need to do so."