Obama to face questions in his first Twitter Town Hall

Barack Obama would next week host his first ever Twitter town hall, one of his global online outreach programmes that would enable people across the globe to ask questions directly to the US President.

The Twitter town hall which is to be streamed live online will be hosted on July 6 through White House's Twitter account "@whitehouse".

The conversation between Obama and American citizens on issues ranging from economy, immigration, health care to employment will be moderated by Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey, White House spokesman Jay Carney said.

To participate, Twitter users can submit their questions using the hashtag #AskObama, Carney said.

In the event, Obama will be speaking and not tweeting, Carney said.

The social networking site is using a number of ways to select the most popular and relevant questions for the event, he said.

The White House also announced its first "Tweetup" today.

A portion of the Twitter town hall's live audience will be drawn from people who follow @whitehouse and visit the webpage whitehouse.Gov/tweetup to sign up, Carney said.

The "Tweetup" will be the first one which the White House hosts and its future Tweetups will provide @whitehouse followers an opportunity to attend events, engage with administration officials, and share their ideas with other followers.

The White House primarily uses its Twitter account to share breaking news and other updates with its 2.25 million followers.

The White House officials also use the popular website Twitter to engage with the American public and take questions directly from its users on a variety of issues.