WASHINGTON, Nov 3 — US President Barack Obama defended Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton and criticised the FBI announcement of new emails linked to her private server in an interview taped Tuesday, saying there was no room for innuendo in the investigative process.

In his first comment since the FBI reported a new cache of emails possibly related to Clinton, Obama said he did not want to meddle in the process.

But his displeasure at how it unfolded was clear.

"I do think that there is a norm that when there are investigations we don’t operate on innuendo and we don’t operate on incomplete information and we don’t operate on leaks. We operate based on concrete decisions that are made,” he told millennial news publisher/organisation NowThis in an exclusive interview aired yesterday.

The FBI said on Friday it had found new emails that might pertain to Clinton’s use of a private server for government business while she was Obama’s first secretary of state from 2009-13.

FBI Director James Comey said he did not know whether the emails were significant and released no information other than that they existed. His announcement 11 days before the Nov. 8 election drew outrage from Democrats and others who believed it would unfairly influence the vote. — Reuters