President George W. Bush convened his first Cabinet meeting, instructing hand-picked officials to keep "the highest of ethical standards" and lowest of budgets. He revealed himself to be jokey but firm with those who might cross him.

With Secretary of State Colin Powell at his right elbow and Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld at his left at Wednesday's meeting, Bush gathered his team around the massive Cabinet table to remind them, he said, "that a dollar spent is somebody's money and that we expect there to be lean budgets."

And, the president said, "I expect only one standard, and that's the highest of ethical standards." In what could be taken as a poke at the Clinton administration, which saw some Cabinet members resign under criminal investigation, Bush told reporters: "I want to assure Americans that they're going to be as proud of this Cabinet as I am."

There were conspicuous absences in the crowded Cabinet room, where aides in assigned seats lined the walls.

Bush's attorney general pick, John Ashcroft, whose nomination was being hotly debated on the Senate floor as the Cabinet met, and would-be trade representative

Robert Zoellick have not yet won Senate confirmation.

Tommy Thompson, confirmed by the Senate but not yet sworn in as health and human services secretary, was home in Wisconsin delivering its state of the state address, his swan song as governor. He'll resign that job Thursday.

The Cabinet meeting, called to order precisely on schedule ("I expect my Cabinet officials to be on time," Bush said), sat smack in the middle of a day of presidential outreach to House and Senate tax committee members, Catholic leaders and wary black lawmakers.

Some who emerged from those closed-door meetings painted a portrait of Bush eager to form personal bonds with the people he'll need to get his legislative agenda enacted. Others, like Rep. Charlie Rangel of New York, who chuckled about outreach overload after the second of his three White House visits in two days, said Bush put Democrats on notice that bipartisan cooperation must be a two-way street.

The president "made it clear if we weren't positive, he didn't have to be positive either," Rangel said after a morning meeting on tax-cut options. "He made it clear that he's the president and he would have the last word. He was smiling when he said it."