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The White House announced late Friday afternoon – on its Twitter page – that President Obama will hold a primetime news conference on Wednesday, July 22nd at 9:00 p.m. Eastern Time.

"You heard it here first: Primetime presidential news conference at the White House, Wed. 7/22 @ 9PM EDT," the White House said, prompting an immediate flurry of retweets.

It will be Mr. Obama's forth prime time news conference and his fifth formal solo White House news conference.

Check back to CBSNews.com Wednesday evening for full coverage of the press conference, which will likely focus largely on health care reform efforts.

President Obama held a press conference Friday in L’Aquila, Italy, highlighting the achievements of the three day G8 Summit.

The President said that, at the conclusion of the summit, the world leaers in attendance had made significant headway on ecomnit recovery, nuclear non-proliferation, climate change, and food security.

Mr. Obama also declared that full economic recovery is still “a ways off,” although “we appear to have averted global collapse.”

He also discussed issues with Iran, his meeting with the pope, and his stopover in Africa.

The full transcript of Mr. Obama’s press conference on July 10, as released by the White House, can be found below:

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Barack Obama's fourth solo White House press conference differed from his past efforts in many ways: It was held during the day instead of prime time. It was the first to be held in the briefing room. It featured a question that had been directly solicited by the White House.

And perhaps most notably, the feel was simply different. The president faced a press corps that at times seemed exasperated and was quick to challenge him, and Mr. Obama seemed more frustrated with his questioners than he has been in the past.

The primary point of contention was Iran. The president opened the press conference by ratcheting up his rhetoric, saying he is "appalled and outraged" by the violence and threats against protesters. He had been criticized in recent days by John McCain and others for not offering stronger criticism of the Iranian regime.
That prompted this question from Fox News' Major Garrett: "What took you so long?"

The president responded by saying, in part, "we've been entirely consistent, Major, in terms of how we've approached this."

That's a stretch – the president had previously been nowhere near as strong in his criticism as he was today. He was later short with Garrett, repeating exact words in response to a follow up on potential diplomatic relations with Iran.

Before you say, "hang on, this is conservative-leaning Fox you're talking about, it doesn't mean all that much," consider the fact that an even more contentious back-and-forths took place with other correspondents.

Here's an exchange between Mr. Obama and NBC's Chuck Todd:

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Some people noticed that many reporters rose from their seats last Friday when President Obama unexpectedly entered the White House briefing room, but the same courtesy was not always extended in the past when President Bush would make an appearance.

Comparison videos were even posted on YouTube.

It’s a long-standing practice for reporters to rise when the president enters the East Room for a news conference, but that hasn’t been the case in the briefing room.

I checked with two colleagues who served as senior wire service reporters during the Bush Presidency and who, in matters of press protocol, the rest of us followed.

“The briefing room is always a more informal place,” says Steve Holland of Reuters.

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It was the closest thing to a Freudian slip for the almost-always focused and disciplined President Obama. Twice during his nationally broadcast news conference, Mr. Obama reinforced the notion of a permanent campaign by referring to "this race."

Asked what surprised him the most about his first 100 days, Mr. Obama responded, "I am surprised compared to where I started, when we first announced for this race, by the number of critical issues that appear to be coming to a head all at the same time. You know, when I first started this race, Iraq was a central issue, but the economy appeared on the surface to still be relatively strong. There were underlying problems that I was seeing with health care for families and our education system and college affordability and so forth, but obviously, I didn't anticipate the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression."

It was just an aside, of course. But it was something of a telling one coming during substantive comments on issues that included swine flu, troubled automakers, terror suspect torture and the other pressing items on the crowded Obama agenda.

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As one among a throng of reporters last evening in the East Room, I was struck by the degree to which the White House Press Corps has been tamed, if not mollified, on one aspect of our conduct.

Nowadays, it’s standard practice at these sessions to wait quietly for the President to call the name of the next reporter from whom he’ll take a question.

It’s the journalistic equivalent of The Price Is Right. “Mark Knoller – come on down, you’re the next reporter to play “Can You Answer This?”

It’s very different from when I first started covering presidential news conferences in 1976 during the Administration of Gerald Ford. Then, reporters would shout and wave their hands at the president in the hope of being recognized for the next question. The practice continued into the Carter, Reagan, Bush/41 and Clinton presidencies.

“Mr. President, Mr. President,” would come the bellows from a room full of reporters. The trick was to gauge precisely when the President had spoken the last word of his answer to the previous question and try to be first to speak up in the hope of making eye contact so he’ll call you name - or in the case of a young AP Radio reporter whose name he didn’t know - getting a nod and an index finger pointed at you to indicate you’re at bat.

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During his primetime press conference, President Obama addressed a number of serious topics, among them torture, the flu outbreak, and the struggling economy. There was, however, one light moment, and it came when New York Times reporter Jeff Zeleny asked the president this question:

During these first 100 days, what has surprised you the most about this office? Enchanted you the most from serving in this office? Humbled you the most? And troubled you the most?

"Now let me write this down," the president quipped. He looked down at the podium. "I've got..."

Interjected Zeleny: "Surprised, troubled..."

Mr. Obama: "I've got -- what was the first one?"

Zeleny: "Surprised."

Mr. Obama: "Surprised."

Zeleny: "Troubled."

Mr. Obama: "Troubled."

Zeleny: "Enchanted."

The president paused. "Enchanted," he repeated. "Nice."

For the first time in a rather sober press conference, laughter broke out among the reporters.

Watch:



After Zeleny reminded Mr. Obama the fourth category – humbled – the president addressed the question. His full response is below.

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President Obama said tonight that the "torture memos" do not show that intelligence obtained using harsh interrogation techniques could not have been discovered through alternate methods.

In making that argument, the president was deflecting charges by former Vice President Dick Cheney that the memos that have been made public do not reflect the important information gained by using waterboarding and other controversial techniques.

"The public reports and the public justifications for these techniques, which is that we got information from these individuals that were subjected to these techniques, doesn't answer the core question," Mr. Obama said. "Which is, could we have gotten that same information without resorting to these techniques? And it doesn't answer the broader question, are we safer as a consequence of having used these techniques?"

Mr. Obama said that even though it might be harder, he still felt it was best for the long term security of the country to only employ intelligence gathering practices that are consistent with America's values.

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And on his hundredth day in office…President Obama will field questions from the media.

The White House announced this afternoon that the president will host his third prime-time press conference next Wednesday at 8:00 p.m., EST. The conference will be televised from the East Room of the White House, after the president returns from a town hall meeting in St. Louis.

Next Wednesday marks the end of the president's first 100 days in office. A hundred days has become a historical gauge of progress for every administration since Franklin Delano Roosevelt successfully pushed a torrent of New Deal era reforms through Congress following his 1932 election.

Click here for full CBSNews.com coverage of Mr. Obama's first 100 days in office.

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Unity between the United States and Great Britain - as well as between the two global leaders and the rest of the word - was the overarching theme of the joint press conference between President Obama and Prime Minister Gordon Brown. The global economic recession dominated remarks and questions.

However, other issues were also clearly on the mind of the journalists covering the G20 summit and President Obama’s first trip abroad....

• There was a healthy does of flattery between the two powerful “friends”:
  
  Prime Minister Brown congratulated President Obama on “the dynamism, the energy and, indeed, the achievements that you have been responsible for. He added that, “your first 70 days in office have changed America, and you've changed America's relationship with the world.”
  
  “You're to be congratulated because you have shown extraordinary energy and leadership and initiative in laying the groundwork for this summit,” Mr. Obama said. "All of us owe Prime Minister Brown an extraordinary debt of gratitude.”

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