WITNESS - Face to face with America's "rock star" president

By Simon Denyer

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - We were led through a door that is usually forbiddingly closed, past a clutch of burly secret service agents, around a corner, and there he was, in a corridor leading to the Oval Office.

Barack Obama, America's "rock star" president, greeted us with a smile and a handshake.

I had felt a little nervous before the interview, partly because we had so little time allotted, just 15 minutes to try to extract some news.

But I also felt a buzz of adrenalin. In a room that evokes history, power and tradition, we were waved to our seats by America's first black president and a man who has caught the imagination of the world like few of his predecessors.

So what is he really like, my friends wanted to know afterward.

He seemed friendly and charming of course, but businesslike too; cautious and deliberative mostly, but sharp and amusing at times. He was very obviously proud of his daughters and maybe a little sensitive about his Nobel Peace Prize.

He was thin and angular, confident and smart, perhaps a little grayer around the temples than I had thought. I found myself noticing his Calvin Klein socks and long, black shoes.

As we walked in, we chatted briefly about a wooden carving from Burundi in the corridor, and then we sat. He was on a chair in front of the fireplace, the three of us were on couches on either side.