Nov. 11 (Bloomberg) -- Registered lobbyists will be barred from contributing to Barack Obama's transition to the presidency or working for his administration in any area in which they represented clients, the president-elect's transition team announced.

The new rules also ban members of the transition team who become lobbyists from trying to influence the administration on issues they worked on.

``We are announcing rules that are the strictest, the most far-reaching ethics rules of any transition team in history,'' John Podesta, who's leading Obama's transition, told reporters in Washington today.

Both Obama and Republican presidential nominee John McCain railed against special interests in the campaign. Obama didn't accept donations from political action committees or lobbyists, though he did take money from members of firms that lobbied.

Podesta said he expects the transition to have a $12 million budget and employ about 450 people. Around $5.2 million will come from federal appropriations and the rest from private sources, he said. Contributions will be limited to $5,000 and will be listed at the end of each month. The transition won't accept PAC money.

Obama raised more than $650 million for his campaign, more than anyone in U.S. history, and was the first major party nominee to shun federal funds for the general election.

President George W. Bush didn't have a similar ban on lobbyist contributions for his transition to the presidency eight years ago.

To contact the reporters on this story: Jonathan D. Salant in Washington at o jsalant@bloomberg.net; Kristin Jensen in Washington at kjensen@bloomberg.net.

Last Updated: November 11, 2008 16:13 EST