Being President of the USA will cost tech-savvy Barack Obama his 'Blackberry.'

If media reports here are to be believed then President-elect Obama, who is apparently addicted to Blackberry, will, in all probability, have to abandon the hi-tech gadget, before occupying the White House.

In addition to concerns about the e-mail security, the New York Times says, he faces the Presidential Records Act, which puts all his correspondence, even personal, in the official record and ultimately up for public review, and the threat of subpoenas.

Quoting Obama's aides who doubt his being the first e-mailing president of America, the paper said that the President-elect, however, seems intent on pulling the office at least partly into the 21st century.

His aides told the Times that Obama hopes to have a laptop computer on his desk in the Oval Office, making him the first American president to do so.

Although Obama has not sent a farewell dispatch from the personal e-mail account he uses he has not changed his address in years but friends say the frequency of correspondence has diminished.

In recent days, though, he has been seen typing his thoughts on transition matters and other items on his BlackBerry, bypassing, at least temporarily, the bureaucracy that is quickly encircling him, the paper reported.

Obama is the second president to grapple with the idea of this self-imposed isolation.

Three days before his first inauguration, the Times reported, George W Bush had sent a message to 42 friends and relatives that explained his predicament.