For the first time the news agency site Reuters.com has allowed an external company to take over their homepage with a combination of flash animated ads and BBC-branded wallpaper, adds the release.

The BBC is using live news feeds from bbcnews.com in some of its creative executions, including an interactive overlay featuring a map of the world which allows the viewer to select BBC news headlines by region from within the advertising itself.

The bbcnews.com world editor Steve Herrmann said: "The US market is significant to us. A large part of our international audience is based in North America.

"We get a lot of interest and a significant volume of feedback and comment from people in the US, many of them responding to news events through our interactive area, Have Your Say. As the US election approaches, we expect more people to want access to the wider view we can provide."

The campaign has been designed and the media plan executed by the London-based online specialists, Agency Republic. This is the third bbcnews.com campaign its team has produced for the BBC.