WASHINGTON The Russians want him to hold off installation of a missile defense shield in Poland. The Europeans want him to renounce the idea of "regime change" for Iran, while the Israelis want to be sure he does not give Iran a pass when it comes to nuclear weapons.

The Taliban has issued a statement urging him to "put an end to all the policies being followed by his Opposition Party, the Republicans, and pull out U.S. troops from Afghanistan and Iraq."

There is a world of advice out there for President-elect Barack Obama. Within minutes of his election on Nov. 4, the calls from foreign governments began, Obama aides say, and they have not stopped.

While the first telephone exchanges between Obama and foreign leaders were limited to pledges of future cooperation and invitations to visit, those leaders and their aides have also been contacting Obama's advisers and their surrogates with suggestions on how an Obama administration should conduct, and change, U.S. foreign policy.

There are also signs that some foreign governments are moving to alter the playing field even before Obama takes office. On Wednesday alone, North Korea said it would not allow international inspectors to take soil and nuclear waste samples from its main nuclear complex; Iran successfully tested a new long-range missile that it claimed was capable of reaching southeastern Europe; and Russia rejected a U.S. proposal meant to assuage Russian fears over the planned missile defense system in Poland and the Czech Republic.

The foreign efforts to sway the new team are normal during any presidential transition, but are accelerated in this case, foreign policy experts said, because of the historic nature of Obama's election and the significantly different course that world leaders expect him to pursue in U.S. foreign policy.

"We have heard a lot of important ideas from our friends and allies," said Denis McDonough, a foreign policy adviser to Obama. "We consider them closely in an effort to be a partner that listens, as the president-elect shapes his agenda to advance U.S. interests from his first day in office." But until Inauguration Day, McDonough said, the Obama team will be in a listen-only mode.

French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner said over breakfast with reporters in Washington that he thinks "the personality of Barack Obama can make a difference" when it comes to Iran. But Kouchner also urged that Obama exercise caution, using a speech at the Brookings Institution to warn against undermining the carefully plotted, but so far unsuccessful transatlantic effort to rein in Tehran's nuclear ambitions.

Israel has been pushing, too. A senior Israeli official said that the Israeli government is in touch with Obama's close aides, in particular with Dennis B. Ross, who was President Bill Clinton's envoy to the Middle East. "For us, it's Iran," the official said, adding that Israel wants to make sure that Obama will tackle the Iran issue as soon as he takes office. "We can't afford a vacuum."

Russia, too, has already made a proposal, one that is close to Moscow's heart. On Nov. 7, Deputy Foreign Minister Alexander Grushko said that Russia would not deploy missiles in Kaliningrad, a Russian enclave that borders Poland, if Obama were to scrap the Bush administration's planned missile defense shield. Obama has said that he supports a missile shield, provided that the technology is workable and cost-efficient.

As for the Taliban, it seems unlikely that Obama will be acceding to its call for U.S. troops to be pulled out of Afghanistan; he said during the campaign that, to the contrary, he would increase the number of U.S. combat brigades deployed there.

Still, there could be room for compromise. Along with its usual invective against the Bush administration, the Taliban called in its statement for Obama to "respect the rights of the people to independence and observe the norms of human rights."

"In short," the Taliban statement said, "he should set out on a policy that will have a message of peace for the war-stricken world."