US President Barack Obama on Thursday announced to hold a news conference at the White House Friday afternoon.

Obama made the announcement after he met with visiting Greece Prime Minister Antonis Samaras at the Oval Office.

The news conference will begin at 3 p.m. (1900 GMT) Friday, according to the White House.

It will be Obama's first solo news conference since April 30.

The US president is expected to answer questions on US-Russia relations as tensions are mounting between the two countries due to Edward Snowden, the US National Security Agency leaker who has been granted asylum by Moscow.

On Wednesday, the White House announced that Obama has canceled his planned meeting with Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin next month.

Appearing on NBC's Late Night with Jay Leno Tuesday night, Obama claimed Moscow sometimes slipped back into a Cold War mentality, noting that he saw Putin's hand in this.

The news conference also comes in the midst of a terror alert that led the United States to close nearly two dozen diplomatic facilities in the Middle East and North Africa.

The massive closures came after US intelligence agencies picked up an unusual amount of chatter from militants, sparking fears of an attack on Americans or US interests somewhere in the world in the coming weeks.

The US president is set to leave for a nine-day vacation in Martha's Vineyard in Massachusetts on Saturday.