US President Barack Obama has launched his own Twitter account, the White House has confirmed.

Under the account name @POTUS (President Of The United States), Mr Obama had attracted 100,000 followers within a half hour of it going live.

Within just a few hours he was well on course for a million followers.

For years, White House officials have used Twitter to communicate White House policy and occasional personal observations.

But Mr Obama himself has, until now, stayed out of the social media fray.

In his first tweet he said: "Hello, Twitter! It's Barack. Really! Six years in, they're finally giving me my own account."

The President's official feed, run by Organizing for Action staff, has 59.3m followers.

The account @BarackObama was launched in 2007, and the President initials tweets he writes himself with the letters BO.

The White House said the tweets on the @POTUS account will come exclusively from the president.

The move is the latest by a White House particularly attuned to social media and new technology.