A summary of The Obama’s first day:

-Mr. Obama met with his top national security advisers to discuss a timetable for fulfilling one of his principal campaign promises: to withdraw combat troops from Iraq within 16 months.

-Mr. Obama signed two executive orders and three presidential memoranda aimed at making government more transparent and tightening ethics rules.

-The new president also ordered that the salaries of senior staff earning more than $100,000 a year be frozen. The move would affect about a third of the 450 White House staff.

-Mr. Obama signed an executive order prohibiting executive branch employees from accepting gifts from lobbyists and setting new rules on lobbying, both before and after their service in his administration. Under the new policy, no official may work on matters for which they served as lobbyists during the previous two years. And after leaving government, they may not lobby a slew of top officials in the administration — as long as Mr. Obama is president.

-Mr. Obama also ordered that the administration adopt new rules making it easier for the public to obtain information using the Freedom of Information Act. He issued an order making clear that only the president can assert executive privilege in keeping records secret after an administration ends.

-The new president directed government attorneys to ask for a halt in proceedings while detention policies are reassessed, and moved toward issuing an executive order closing the military prison.

-On Wednesday, Mr. Obama called the leaders of Israel, Egypt, Jordan and the Palestinian Authority to discuss the ongoing crisis in the Gaza Strip, according to the White House. By including Mahmoud Abbas, president of the Palestinian Authority, in his opening round, Mr. Obama is signaling a continuaion of a Bush administration policy that has sought to strengthen the moderate leader over his rivals in Hamas, according to Mideast analysts.

-Mr. Obama also met Wednesday with his national security team, including Gen. David Petraeus, who oversees the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, and Gen. Raymond Odierno, the top Iraq commander.

Gen. Petraeus flew to Washington after wrapping up a swing through central Asia, while Gen. Raymond Odierno was participating by video teleconference.

The session marked Mr. Obama’s first attempt to find a workable middle ground between his campaign promise to speedily withdraw U.S. combat forces from Iraq and the military’s preference for a slower and smaller drawdown.