Barack Obama has piled further pressure on disgraced Democratic congressman Anthony Weiner, who has to date resisted calls to step down from Congress, by describing Weiner's behaviour as "highly inappropriate" and saying: "I can tell you that if it was me, I would resign."

Obama's remarks, in an interview with NBC's Today show on Tuesday, makes the president the highest ranking Democrat to suggest that Weiner leave politics, as further photographs sent by Weiner to women emerged and Democratic leaders in Congress called on him to go.

Obama's comments were his first remarks on the lurid scandal, in which Weiner first denied and later admitted exchanging lewd photographs and online messages with several women he had met through social media.

"I think he's embarrassed himself. He's acknowledged that. He's embarrassed his wife and his family. Ultimately, there's gonna be a decision for him and his constituents. I can tell you that, if it was me, I would resign," Obama said in the interview.

"When you get to the point where, because of various personal distractions, you can't serve as effectively as you need to at the time when people are worrying about jobs, and their mortgages, and paying the bills, then you should probably step back."

On Monday the House of Representatives unanimously granted Weiner's request for a two week leave of absence.

Before Obama's comments, other senior Democrats had called on Weiner to quit over the weekend, including the Democratic leader in the House, Nancy Pelosi, and the influential chair of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, Steve Israel, who called Weiner's scandal "an insurmountable distraction".

So far Weiner has maintained that he will stay in office, and there is little the Democratic heirarchy can do to force him out, other than strip him of his spot of the House's powerful energy and commerce committee.

Republicans in Congress have been pressing the Democratic leadership to expel Weiner, but Pelosi said in a statement: "None of us, not anybody here, has the power to force somebody out of office. That person has to decide himself as to whether he will stay or he will go."

Weiner has said that he would not resign without talking to his wife, Huma Abedin, herself an aide to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. Abedin is expected to return from a trip overseas on Tuesday.