Washington » Marking the end of a feverish first 100 days in office, President Barack Obama Wednesday night laid out his agenda for the rest of the year, pledging to forge ahead on a health-care overhaul, promote energy independence and revive the banking and auto industries.

In a wide-ranging White House news conference that covered the flu pandemic, Taliban encroachment in Pakistan and congressional politics, Obama touted his early accomplishments, but warned that his biggest challenges -- achieving health care and energy policy reform -- still await him.

"The typical president, I think, has two or three big problems -- we've got seven or eight big problems," Obama said at the prime-time news conference, his third in as many months. "And so we've had to move very quickly and I'm very proud of my team for the fact that we've been able to keep our commitments to the American people, to bring about change, while at the same time managing a whole host of issues that had come up that weren't necessarily envisioned a year-and-a-half ago."

Addressing the most recent of crises to land on his desk -- the swine flu pandemic, which has already been blamed for more than 150 deaths, including one in Texas -- the president Wednesday night reassured Americans that "their entire government" was taking precautions to control the dangers from the virus and that it was not necessary to close the border with Mexico.

Such a move would be akin to "closing the barn door after the horses are out," Obama said, urging that Americans wash their hands frequently, cover their mouths when they sneeze, and stay home if ill.

The president called the potentially deadly virus the "H1N1 flu," answering complaints by Iowans Tom Vilsack, the Agriculture Secretary, and Sen. Tom Harkin, who have publicly worried that the reference to pigs will wrongly lead people to stop eating pork, damaging the pork industry in the early presidential caucus state.

Obama also said he was "very hopeful" that Chrysler motors would achieve a resolution to it fiscal woes, and that General Motors could also become a "strong, competitive viable company." But while defending the financial assistance his administration gave the auto industry, Obama said he was eager to cut the cord with industries that got federal bailout funds.

"I don't want to run auto companies. I don't want to run banks. I've got two wars I've got to run," Obama said, drawing a few chuckles.

Obama sought to downplay the significance of partisan politics, even though Pennsylvania Senator Arlen Specter's party switch this week left the Democrats on the verge of a filibuster-resistant majority in the Senate.

"I am under no illusion that suddenly I'm going to have a rubber stamp in the Senate," Obama said, noting Specter's independent streak. And as for "my Republican friends," Obama added, "I want them to realize that my reaching out to them has been genuine."

On another issue that has caused deep rifts between the parties -- abortion -- Obama dialed down the rhetoric. While Obama said he believed in abortion rights, a cornerstone of Democratic platforms, he added that the Freedom of Choice Act, which would declare that the official policy of the United States is to preserve the right to abortion, was not the "highest legislative priority" for him.

"I think abortion is a moral issue," he said, adding that "I think that those who are pro-choice make a mistake when they -- if they suggest -- and I don't want to create straw men here, but I think there are some who suggest that this is simply an issue about women's freedom and that there's no other considerations. I think, look, this is an issue that people have to wrestle with and families and individual women have to wrestle with."

After 100 days in office, Obama has achieved many of his legislative goals -- including the expansion of a children's health care program, a $787 billion economic stimulus package, a national service bill, and an equal pay law. He also has loosened restrictions on travel to Cuba, and announced plans to close Guantanamo Bay prison, stop torture and end the war in Iraq, all promises he made during his campaign.

As if to punctuate the 100-day marker -- a traditional pulse-taking moment Obama's senior aides had dismissed as a "Hallmark holiday" -- Congress gave Obama a legislative victory Wednesday, approving a $3.55 trillion budget blueprint that not only reflects Obama's tax and spending priorities, but protects his promised healthcare overhaul from procedural maneuvers that could kill it.

Obama acknowledged Wednesday night that achieving his legislative agenda was tougher than he imagined, in part because Washington was resistant to the change that was the theme of his campaign. I am "sobered by the fact that change in Washington comes slowly," Obama said when asked what had troubled him most during his young presidency.