President Obama displayed impressive hand-eye coordination during the interview with John Harwood. After killing the fly, he declared: "That was pretty impressive, wasn't it? I got the sucker."

As Obama started to respond to a question from the interviewer he became distracted by a fly buzzing around his head and started to laugh.

He then watched the fly in silence as it landed on top of his hand before swatting it and killing it with the other. The US president then turned to Mr Harwood to ask: "Now, where were we?"

As the fly lay dead on the floor he pointed to it and suggested the crew film it, amid much laughter from the show's host and the production crew.

"You wanna film that," he said. "There it is." The US president is already being called Obamzilla and fly-killing badass by the US media.

During the rest of the interview Obama discussed the economy, Iran, his healthcare plan and the media scrutiny he has faced since he came to power.

He also appeared at one point to criticise coverage of him by Fox News. Asked by Mr Harwood about perceptions Obama has gotten an easy ride from the press, the president called the charge “very hard for him to swallow.”

“I’ve got one television station that is entirely devoted to attacking my administration…That’s a pretty big megaphone. You’d be hard pressed if you watched the entire day to find a positive story about me on that front,” he said.

"We welcome people who are asking us some tough questions. I think I’ve probably been as accessible as any president in the first six months.

"I think that actually the reason people have been generally positive about what we’ve been trying to do is people feel as if I’m available and willing to answer questions and we haven’t been trying to hide the ball.”