In his first televised interviews since being named the chief of staff for President-elect Barack Obama, Rahm Emanuel on Sunday called for swifter action to lift the struggling auto industry and suggested Mr. Obama and President Bush might clash over a stimulus package.

On the first weekend since Mr. Obama was elected president, several of his aides said his administration would attempt to roll back a number of Bush administration policies, including tight restrictions on stem cell research and a push for oil and gas drilling in Utah. The statements indicated that the first few months of an Obama administration could bring about stark reversals on controversial policies.

But Mr. Obama’s aides emphasized that his first priority would be finding ways to repair the battered economy, whose latest woes include a steep drop-off in retail sales and the loss of about one million jobs. The auto industry has been particularly hard hit, with Ford and General Motors pleading for government help after car sales plummeted 18 percent this quarter. General Motors, the country’s largest carmaker, reported a $4.2 billion third-quarter operating loss, and said it may be on the brink of collapse.

Over the weekend, the Speaker of the House, Nancy Pelosi, and the Senate Majority leader, Harry Reid, sent a letter to the Bush administration requesting that funds from the $700 billion bailout package  intended for Wall Street  be used to help carmakers as well. But the White House has signaled that it would oppose such a measure.