President-elect Barack Obama asked President Bush to request the $350 billion remaining in the financial rescue package, the White House said Monday, shortly after Mr. Bush finished a news conference.

The White House press secretary, Dana M. Perino, issued this statement:

This morning, President-elect Obama asked President Bush to formally notify Congress, on his behalf, of his intent to exercise the authority under the Emergency Economic Stabilization Act to access the last tranche of $350 billion in funding for Treasury programs addressing the financial crisis. President Bush agreed to the president-elect’s request. We will continue our consultations with the president-elect’s transition team, and with Congress, on how best to proceed in accordance with the requirements of the statute.

Mr. Bush’s last news conference opened with cordial words for the reporters who have covered his eight years in office.

Acknowledging that relations have been strained at times – that some had “misunderestimated me” – he called their work generally professional and thanked them for their work.

There was a bit of the usual teasing, as he pronounced Suzanne Malveaux’s given name in the French manner she prefers, noted that he used to say it like a Texan, and then referred to himself as George, pronouncing it like the first name of Monsieur Pompidou.

The reporters got down to business for the 45-minute session, asking Mr. Bush whether he would make any move in his last week in office to request the second half of the $700 billion bailout from Congress. He demurred, suggesting that it is most likely that the new Congress will deal with the new president on that matter.





“I don’t intend to make the request unless he specifically asks me to make it,” he said, speaking of Mr. Obama.

If that seemed to tiptoe up to the edge of a premature handoff of power, it also showed that the outgoing and incoming chief executives are on roughly the same wave length on how to do business with each other.

“There will be a moment when the responsibilities of the president land squarely on his shoulders,” Mr. Bush added. But he later said the burdens of the Oval Office were sometimes exaggerated.



He refused to discuss any pardons, including pre-emptive pardons for anyone involved in interrogations of captives in the campaign against terrorism.

He became passionate in defense of some of his policies, saying the presidency could not be a popularity contest, and that he would not have endorsed the Kyoto global warming treaty just for popularity, or blamed all the problems of the Middle East on Israel just to gain popularity among her critics and enemies. Warming to the theme, he said he had nothing to apologize for in the tough actions he took after the terrorism attacks of 2001. “Do you remember what it was like around here after Sept. 11?” he demanded. “I do.”

Mr. Bush had a few words of advice for the Republicans, who he said could mount a comeback.

“Our party,” he said, “has got to be compassionate and broad-minded.”

Asked if it troubled him that some people in the country were angry at how he handled the war and other matters, he said most of the people he met were civil even when they disagreed with him. He said that any president experienced some harsh criticism and that Mr. Obama would too.

“They are not angry, they are not hostile people,” he said. “I view those who get angry and yell and say bad things and all that kind of stuff as just a few people in the country.”

He said when he returns to Texas he will be able to look in the mirror every morning without regret.

“When I get out of here, I am getting off the stage,” he said. “I have had my time in the Klieg lights.”