WASHINGTON - IT FELL to President Barack Obama to confirm the gossip that his aides had spent weeks trying to snuff out: He still sneaks an occasional cigarette.

But, the president hastened to add, he never smokes in front of his young daughters and not on a daily basis. Oh, and he is '95 per cent cured.' It was the first public acknowledgment from the president that he still has not kicked the habit completely. In the past, he had alluded to his three-decades-old habit without giving direct answers.

One day after signing the nation's toughest anti-tobacco legislation into law, President Obama was asked again on Tuesday about his smoking habit and came clean.

President Obama has said he used to average about five cigarettes a day, although stress sometimes drove him to reach for a lighter more often. He promised his wife he would quit if she agreed that he should run for president.

Now in the White House, President Obama is finding that his nicotine intake is part of the public debate, much to the president's annoyance.

When asked Tuesday about the anti-smoking measure and his own habits, President Obama scolded a reporter for thinking the question was 'neat ... as opposed to it being relevant to my new law'.

He said the legislation, which faced a veto threat under former President George W. Bush, was aimed at preventing young people from taking up the habit. President Obama began smoking as a teenager and has been an on-again, off-again smoker ever since.

President Obama refused to say how many cigarettes he smokes, where he sneaks them or how often he lights up now that he is in the White House. Only a day earlier, his top aides had refused to answer direct questions about the president's smoking.

During the presidential campaign, aides packed nicotine gum in their pockets to help President Obama control his urges. President Obama occasionally bummed cigarettes from aides, while also making sure to emphasize his efforts to stop for good and his progress toward quitting. -- AP