Barack Obama 'stuck with two dogs' as Michelle away in China

Washington: A lonely Barack Obama has said he feels abandoned after wife Michelle and daughters have left for a China visit, leaving him "stuck with two dogs".

During a funny 10-minute interview on 'The Ellen DeGeneres Show' aired yesterday, the US President, however, hoped his family will have a wonderful time in the communist nation.

"The house is abandoned. I'm stuck with two dogs and I'm expected to walk them and do what you do when you walk dogs," Obama said. "But I think they're going to have a wonderful time."

Obama said it is "a little scary" that his elder daughter Malia is turning 16 soon and that he is sad because she and Sasha are bored of their 52-year-old father.

"They're doing great in school and they're smart and they're funny and they're kind and they're athletic, and so I really have no complaints except for the fact that increasingly they don't have that much time for me.

"I am not that interesting. They're nice about it though, because they love me, so they'll come in and they'll pat me on the head and they'll kiss me and they'll say, 'Oh Daddy, we love you so much', and they'll talk to me for about five minutes, and then they'll say, 'We're going to be gone all weekend.'

So that's making me a little sad," said Obama, who made a satellite appearance from the White House for the interview.

He also teased popular American stand-up comedian and television host DeGeneres about her Oscar selfie, calling it a "pretty cheap stunt".

"I heard about that. I thought it was a pretty cheap stunt, myself," Obama said, referring to the massive group selfie she sent when she hosted the Oscars earlier this month.

"Getting a bunch of celebrities in the background, you feeding them pizza."

The selfie beat Obama's 2012 election-night victory Twitter posting for the most retweets ever, with more than 3.4 million retweets to date.

During the interview, the US President confessed that "life in Washington is a little more boring than displayed on the screen".

"The truth of the matter is, if you followed me, most of my day is sitting in a room listening to a bunch of folks in gray suits talking about a whole bunch of stuff that wouldn't make very good television," he said.