Barack Obama upstaged by scurrying rodent

In the midst of his battle with Wall Street, US president Barack Obama was upstaged - by a mystery rodent.

Obama had just begun a Rose Garden statement on his financial overhaul when suddenly, out of nowhere, a rodent scurried straight past the gray podium with the presidential seal.

"I would partially rule out rat," The Telegraph quoted Russell Link, a wildlife biologist who works for the Washington State Department of Fish and Wildlife, as saying.

"That's due to the lack of a tail that is typically equal to body length."

"My suspicion is it's a vole, commonly called a 'meadow mouse' out our way," he said, after viewing a photograph.

This is not the first time a rodent has been sighted around the White House, and it won't be the last.

Washington is, after all built, along a river, on what used to be a malarial swamp.