US President-elect Barack Obama yesterday appointed former Federal Reserve Chairman Paul Volcker to head a new White House panel to help tackle the financial crisis.

"It has become increasingly clear in recent months that we are facing an economic crisis of historic proportions," Obama said at a press conference in Chicago, noting he will create the "President's Economic Recovery Advisory Board."

Volcker, 81, is a legendary central banker who raised interest rates and restricted the money supply to tame raging inflation in the 1980s, according to the US media.

Meanwhile, Austan Goolsbee, a University of Chicago economist, will be the new panel's top staff official.

"At this defining moment for our nation, the old ways of thinking and acting just won't do," said Obama. "We are called to seek fresh thinking and bold new ideas from the leading minds across America."