Barack Obama would like to offer John McCain a job if he becomes president, in what his allies says is an attempt to end the bitter partisan rancour that engulfed the White House race last week.

Both presidential rivals are working behind the scenes to calm the increasingly incendiary atmosphere on the campaign trail, which erupted with lurid claims about Mr Obama's links with the former terrorist Bill Ayres and a lynch mob atmosphere at McCain rallies.

Two Democratic sources with knowledge of the thinking in the Obama camp say that forming a partnership with Mr McCain would prove that Mr Obama will reach across the aisle and also help rehabilitate Mr McCain, who many Democrats believe has been pushed by hardline advisers into making increasingly desperate attacks on his rival.

By his own admission, the Republican candidate "took the gloves off" last week , unleashing adverts and soundbites attacking Mr Obama's character and judgment as polls showed him on course for a landslide election victory.

One well-connected Democrat, who spoke to Mr Obama last week, told The Sunday Telegraph: "John McCain is a good man. There's no question about it. I think we'll see Barack Obama reach out to him and say: let's work together."