WASHINGTON (AFP) - If he had to be a character from Star Wars, United States (US) President Barack Obama said on Friday he would choose space pilot Han Solo, who is "a little bit of a rebel".

During an interview at the White House, the US president said he had yet to see Star Wars: The Force Awakens, the latest installment in the long-running space saga.

But he still remembers watching the first film in the series, his favorite, as a teenager.

"Number one, I still remember when I saw it," he said. "I was like 14, 15 and I went to the Cinerama theater, right around the corner from my house."

Asked to pick which Star Wars character he would most like to be, Mr Obama said: "I gotta go with Han Solo, he is a little bit of a rebel".

Solo is a wisecracking smuggler and an irreverent, seat-of-the-pants adventurer. But he shares a romantic history with Princess Leia, and under his cynical exterior lies a big heart and solid principles.

Mr Obama was interviewed by three young YouTube "creators", each with millions of followers: sWooZie, Destin Sandlin and Ingrid Nilsen.

The three, in clear admiration of the president, were not particularly aggressive questioners, and Obama took the opportunity to elaborate on the key themes of his State of the Union address on Tuesday: gun control, terrorist threats, the fight against cancer and the United States' world standing.

He also explained why he carries several objects that were given to him, whether by unknowns or world leaders, since he arrived in the White House in 2009.

Mr Obama pulled from his pocket a rosary from Pope Francis, a Hindu statuette "that a woman gave me" and a Coptic cross from Ethiopia.

"I am not that superstitious," he said, but the objects "remind me of all the different people that I have met along the way".