A 14-year-old boy has been charged with making an e-mail threat against President George W Bush, a misspelled message that read in part "im going to kill you."

Police said the threat was sent to the president's e-mail address at the White House. Secret Service agents traced it to Marion and focused on a juvenile because of the spelling and grammatical errors.

The note read: "im looking for you and im going to kill you wen i get you i do not like you i kill you."

Agents and police interviewed the youth at Harding High School, where he is a freshman.

Police said the teen admitted sending the note to impress someone he was speaking with on the Internet.

He told police he later tried to take the threat back by sending the White House another e-mail apologising for the original communication.

The youth was being held at the Marion County juvenile centre.

The youth's mother referred all questions to her son's lawyer, Robert Nemo, who did not immediately return messages.

© AAP 2001, news.ninemsn.com.au