President Barack Obama will take his economic strategy to Jay Leno's comic couch on Thursday in the first appearance by a sitting U.S. president on a late-night TV talk show.

NBC said in a statement that Obama would sit down before a live audience on "The Tonight Show with Jay Leno" on March 19 to talk about his economic plan and "other topics."

Obama's visit to the Burbank studio near Los Angeles, where the top-rated late-night TV show is recorded, will come during a visit by the president to Southern California this week.

NBC said it would be Obama's first sit-down talk show appearance in studio with a live audience since his election last year, and the first ever appearance by a U.S. president while in office on a late-night chat show.