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Chief executives of the nation's biggest financial institutions emerged from a meeting with U.S. President Barack Obama pledging to cooperate with the administration's effort to steer the economy out of its mess.

Executives said the tone of the more-than-90-minute session was cordial, with little discussion of the the controversy over executive compensation.

"We're just in this together. There's still some hard work to do, but a pleasant meeting," said Bank of America Corp. (BAC) CEO Ken Lewis.

The CEOs agreed they had to make clear that they understood the public's concern over taxpayer-funded bailouts, according Freddie Mac (FRE) CEO John Koskinen. The executives, however, said government programs need firm rules that do not change with the political winds.

"Whatever the rules are going to be, we need to know them sooner rather than later because we are prepared to play by the new requirements but we need to know what they're going to be," he said.

The bankers said they support the administration's proposal to cleanse their balance sheets of toxic assets, though they are waiting for more specifics of the plan.

"We don't know all the details ... but we think it's a really encouraging first step to get the plan out there," said Robert Kelly, CEO of Bank of New York Mellon Corp. (BK). "We need to hear the details. I think there's going to be a lot of interest in it."

Richard Davis, CEO of U.S. Bancorp (USB), said a proposal to tax at firms that accept government aid wasn't discussed at the meeting, despite widespread public outrage - and administration rhetoric - over the bonuses doled out to executives at American International Group Inc. (AIG).

"We understand there have been some optics that have been very negative. We apologize for that because it's not something that this industry supports or wants," Davis said.

White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said Obama was "very pleased" with the meeting and hopes to keep the lines of communications open with Wall Street.

"He had no agenda beyond working to get a solution, the right solution for our financial system, and to get it stabilized and working again for the American people," Gibbs said.

The thrust of the president's message to the bank executives, Koskinen said, was that the government and the financial industry needed to work together to steer the economy to recovery.

"No one in that room gave any indication at all that they were anything other than enthusiastic about supporting the president and this program," Koskinen said.

Bank of America's Lewis, when asked if his firm planned to return government funds it received under the Troubled Asset Relief Program, said it was premature to make that decision because banks are still undergoing government-administered stress tests.

The meeting included JP Morgan Chase (CCF) CEO Jamie Dimon, Bank of America CEO Ken Lewis, American Express Corp. (AXP) CEO Ken Chenault, Freddie Mac CEO John Koskinen, State Street Corp. (STT) CEO Ronald Logue, BONY-Mellon CEO Robert Kelly, Northern Trust CEO Rick Waddell, PNC Financial Services Group Inc. (PNC)CEO James Rohr, Goldman Sachs Group Inc. (GS) CEO Lloyd Blankfein, Morgan Stanley (MS) CEO John Mack, Citigroup Inc. (C)CEO Vikram Pandit, Wells Fargo & Co. (WFC) CEO John Stumpf, and USBancorp (USB) CEO Richard Davis.

Cam Fine of the Independent Community Bankers and Edward Yingling of the American Bankers Association also attended the session.

-By Henry J. Pulizzi and Jessica Holzer, Dow Jones Newswires; 202-862-9256; henry.pulizzi@dowjones.com