Obama in no hurry to name mate despite clamour from Clinton camp

Having clinched the Democratic presidential nomination, Barack Obama today indicated that he was in no hurry to choose his deputy "" a ticket coveted by his vanquished rival Hillary Clinton "" saying he would look at a "whole range of options".

Amid a guessing game over Clinton-Obama "dream ticket", the 40-year-old, who has scripted history by becoming the first African-American nominee of a major US party, formed a three-member committee to vet the vice-presidential nominee and said both sides needed to catch their breath after the prolonged, bitter contest.

The committee includes former President John F Kennedy's influential daughter Caroline Kennedy, who endorsed Obama during the campaign, former deputy attorney general Eric Holder, and former chief executive of Fannie Mae, Jim Johnson, who had performed a similar task for John Kerry in 2004.

"Senator Obama is pleased to have three talented and dedicated individuals managing this rigorous process. He will work closely with them in the coming weeks but ultimately this will be his decision and his alone," said his spokesman.

In an interview with NBC, Obama counselled both sides to relax. "We just completed a very hard-fought contest she (Clinton) needs to catch her breath. I need to catch mine. I think all our supporters need to just sit back and let things sink in. We're gonna go through a process in the vice-presidential search where I look at a whole range of options," he said. Quick to pounce on his Democratic rival, Republican candidate John McCain challenged Obama to ten town hall-type debates before the Democratic convention in August.

The Obama campaign called McCain's idea "appealing" but made no immediate commitment and proposed some format changes.

The reason McCain has suggested debates, analysts say, is that it will give him free publicity at a time his campaign's financial health is not so good. He is also known to excel in person-to-person talk.

Obama, however, began taking steps to heal the sharp division by reaching out to Clinton and others in the party who opposed him.

Though the Clinton campaign hinted that the former first lady could be interested in becoming Obama's running mate, neither campaign was making any official comments.

Some in the Clinton camp, the Wall Street Journal said, also noted a possible deal-breaker for a party-unity ticket "" Bill Clinton, who may balk at releasing records of his business dealings and big donors to his presidential library.

"She is not campaigning and there's no deal-breaker because there's no deal," said Clinton campaign strategist Geoff Garin.

"She is not encouraging any campaigning. But as she told the New York delegation, she would entertain anything that would help secure a Democratic victory in November," he said. Surrogates of both were discussing the issue in public in an apparent bid to gauge public reaction. Obama advisors are sharply divided over the advisability of offering Clinton to become his running mate and suggestions are being made that she be offered some other post.