CHICAGO • Inheriting an economy in peril, President-elect Barack Obama said Friday that the nation faces the challenge of a lifetime and pledged he would act urgently to help Americans devastated by lost jobs, disappearing savings and homes seized in foreclosure.

But the man who promised change cautioned against hopes of quick solutions.

“It is not going to be easy for us to dig ourselves out of the hole that we are in,” Obama said at his first news conference since winning the presidency Tuesday.

The No. 1 priority, Obama said, is to get Congress to approve an economic stimulus plan that would extend jobless benefits, send food aid to the poor, dispatch Medicaid funds to states and spend tens of billions of dollars on public works projects. If the plan is not approved this month, in a special session of Congress, Obama said “it will be the first thing I get done as president of the United States.”

In his first appearance since election night, Obama sought to project an air of calm. He stood in a presidential-like setting with an array of eight U.S. flags and a lectern showing a presidential seal above the words “The Office of the President Elect.”The stage behind him was lined with advisers he had summoned, his economic brain trust.

Almost 20 minutes late to his first meeting with reporters, Obama spoke for just 20 minutes and broke no ground with new policy announcements or disclosures of who would be in his Cabinet. In lighthearted moments, he joked about seances with dead presidents and the appeal of animal shelter dogs that are “mutts like me.”

Constrained by the fact he will not take office until Jan. 20, Obama deferred to President Bush and his economic team on major decisions. “The United States has only one government and one president at a time,” he said.

Declaring he would not respond to issues “in a knee-jerk fashion,” Obama declined to say how he would deal with Iran, whose president sent a letter of congratulations to Obama.Rep. Steny Hoyer, D-Md., the majority leader, said the House won’t reconvene for a postelection session unless Bush drops his opposition to an economic aid package.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., isn’t sure such a package could get through the Senate either, he added.

“Clearly there’s no point in us doing something if the administration’s going to take a position that they’re not going to sign something,” Hoyer said.

The new Congress could pass an economic aid package when it reconvenes in January, readying it for Obama’s signature as his first official act after being inaugurated.

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