US President-elect Barack Obama will introduce rules to restrict the role of lobbyists as he shapes his administration, says a senior official.

Transition chief John Podesta said Mr Obama would introduce “the strictest and most far reaching ethics rules of any transition team in history”.

He promised the “most open and transparent” ever handover of power.

Under the new measures, Mr Obama will not allow lobbyists actively petitioning the federal government to work with the transition, said Mr Podesta.

The guidelines will also prevent anyone who has acted as a lobbyist over the last 12 months from working on any policy area in the transition in which they had been active.

He added that anyone who works on the transition and then becomes a lobbyist will be barred from approaching the administration for 12 months in the area in which they worked.

Just how successful Obama will be is yet to be seen.  He will be taking on the powerful and the sleazy.  I wish him luck.