US President Barack Obama is keeping his promise to not smoke in the White House though he described it as a "hard" decision.

"No, I haven't had one on these grounds. And I -- you know, sometimes it's hard, but, you know, I'm sticking to it," Obama said in an interview to a news channel. The President stated this when he was asked if he had smoked a cigarette since he entered the White House. However, Obama wasn't asked if he had smoked outside the White House compound since he was sworn in on January 20 as the first black-American president.