President-elect Barack Obama will demand that banks receiving public support step up lending, top advisers said yesterday, as they promised to make restoring the flow of credit a top priority for the new US administration.

"I think he is going to have a strong message for the bankers," David Axelrod, a senior Obama strategist told ABC's This Week. "We want to see credit flowing again. We don't want them to sit on any money that they get from taxpayers."