Obama Steps into Oval Office

President Barack Obama stepped into the Oval Office for the first time as chief executive on Wednesday and summoned economic advisers and top military officials to meetings aimed at delivering the change he promised as a candidate. Aides circulated a draft executive order to close the detention center at Guantanamo Bay.

The president also placed phone calls to Israeli, Palestinian, Egyptian and Jordanian leaders.

Obama emphasized in the conversations that he would work to consolidate the cease-fire between Israel and Hamas in Gaza, said the new White House press secretary, Robert Gibbs.

Gibbs said Obama expressed "his commitment to active engagement in pursuit of Arab-Israeli peace from the beginning of his term."

A multi-denominational prayer service at Washington National Cathedral and an open house at the presidential mansion were also on the schedule of the 44th president, taking office on a promise to fix the battered economy and withdraw U.S. troops from the unpopular war in Iraq on a 16-month timetable.