CHICAGO - PRESIDENT-ELECT Barack Obama plans to tape a weekly address to the country not just for radio listeners, as US presidents have done so for years, but for YouTube viewers as well.

It is the first visible result of a major transition-team effort to make Mr Obama's conversations with the electorate more direct, reported the Miami Herald.

In addition, members and supporters of the White House media upgrade want more input opportunities for the public.

Many of the changes, if adopted, would curb the power of a traditional but often unpopular middleman between presidents and the populace: the mainstream media.

Connecting the White House hearth to the American home, the late president Franklin D. Roosevelt talked to people through the radio in the 1930s, with crackling broadcasts delivered near a crackling fire. John F. Kennedy in the 1960s and Ronald Reagan in the 1980s mastered television.

For President-elect Obama, who built a big part of his campaign on the Internet, it is YouTube.

Yesterday, in his first radio-cum-YouTube address to his country after he won the US presidential election, which was uploaded at his website (www.change.gov) Mr Obama urged lawmakers to quickly pass at least 'a downpayment' this week when they meet on a new economic rescue plan to help resuscitate the ailing American economy.

'I'm glad President Bush has initiated this process because our global economic crisis requires a coordinated global response,' Mr Obama said.

'And yet, as we act in concert with other nations, we must also act immediately here at home to address America's own economic crisis.'

Mr Obama noted that financial markets are volatile, unemployment insurance claims have jumped to their highest levels since Sept 11, 2001, and more jobs are disappearing.

Yet, he said, he was 'more hopeful than ever' that the United States will find a way out of the economic slump.

'But we must act right now,' he said, noting that Congress was meeting next week to address the spreading impact of the financial crisis.

Mr Obama will not be the only one in his administration taking a starring role online. Transition leaders and policy advisers will also appear in videos on a regular basis, Obama spokesman Jen Psaki said. Other officials, such as Cabinet members, could also take part.

President George W. Bush has not videotaped his radio addresses for online viewing as Mr Obama plans to do, the White House said.

YouTube was not around when Mr Bush came into office in 2000, though podcasts of his addresses are available on iTunes, and the audio is posted on www.whitehouse.gov

Radio address evolved into a weekly fixture during the presidency of Mr Reagan.

Still, relatively few people actually heard the address on the radio, and Mr Obama is hoping to reach many more people with what his transition team calls a 'multimedia opportunity'.

Mr Alan Rosenblatt, who directs Internet activism efforts at the Centre for American Progress Action Fund, predicts that Mr Obama's future videos will break through radio's five-minute limit to become a communication form of its own.

Indeed, in a YouTube interview last year, Mr Obama said he intended to use the medium for 'fireside chats', reported the Miami Herald on Friday.

Whatever their length, said Mr Rosenblatt, the videos will evade the editing of Mr Obama's remarks by television and print reporters and enable him to talk to the citizenry directly.

YouTube, which was not a factor in politics until 2006, has proved to be a cheap, powerful and effective tool for Mr Obama. More than 110 million viewers watched his 1,800 campaign-related videos.

Another proposal before the transition team is to give Mr Obama's Internet audience a chance to question him directly, either as part of a traditional news conference or separately.

AP, Reuters