Obama promises US action against Russia after hacking allegations

Outgoing United States president Barack Obama has warned Russia that action will be taken against the country after intelligence officials accused its government and president Vladimir Putin of interference in last month's election.

Donald Trump emerged as an unexpected victor against Democrat Hillary Clinton, whose campaign was dogged by a series of leaks via whistle-blowing site Wikileaks, which released thousands of emails from key Democrats in the run-up to the election.

The Kremlin strongly denies any involvement in the hack, accusations of which have also been rejected by president-elect Trump.

"I think there's no doubt that when any foreign government tries to impact on the integrity of our elections, that we need to take action and we will, at a time and a place of our own choosing," Obama said on Thursday.

The president also admitted that he had spoken with Putin about the issue.

"Mr Putin is well aware of my feelings about this, because I spoke to him directly about it."

It is unclear at this stage what Obama's plans are with regard to the hacking issue, as he only has just over one month left in the job before Trump takes over the Oval Office, having reciprocated several complimentary comments with Putin over the last few months.

Trump has accused the Democrats of being bad losers in the aftermath of the election.

"If Russia, or some other entity, was hacking, why did the White House wait so long to act? Why did they only complain after Hillary lost?" he asked in a tweet on Thursday.