国际英语新闻：Obama to chat online with U.S. citizens

WASHINGTON, March 25 (Xinhua) -- U.S. President Barack Obama will host an online "town hall meeting" with ordinary citizens Thursday morning to discuss the economy, The Washington Post reported Wednesday.

    The event will be streamed live on the Web site of whitehouse.gov, according to the report.

    In a video posted Tuesday on the White House site, Obama asks the public to send in questions and vote on questions sent in by others to determine the most popular, which he'll answer during the event.

U.S. President Barack Obama speaks during a prime time news conference in the East Room of the White House in Washington March 24, 2009

    "This is an experiment but also an exciting opportunity for me to look at a computer and get a snapshot of what Americans across the country care about. We may not always agree on everything, but this way I can get a sense of your concerns and give you some answers," he said.

    The session will be the first of its kind in the history of the White House.

    Obama is known of being good at using web and other technology to communicate with voters during his presidential campaign last year.