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Guess who's coming to lunch. President Obama will meet privately with former Republican rival Mitt Romney at the White House Thursday, their first meeting since the election, the White House announced Tuesday.

The president and the former GOP nominee will meet for lunch in the private dining room, White House Press Secretary Jay Carney announced in a written statement.

The meeting fulfills a promise the president made on election night to work with Romney going forward. "We may have battled fiercely, but it's only because we love this country deeply, and we care so strongly about its future," the president said at the time. "In the weeks ahead, I also look forward to sitting down with Governor Romney to talk about where we can work together to move this country forward."

Their encounter comes as the president is negotiating with congressional Republicans to prevent the economy from going over the "fiscal cliff" of mandatory spending cuts and tax increases set for Jan 1.

There will be no press coverage of the meeting, according to the White House.

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