Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathan on Sunday said that his government is seeking help from US President Barack Obama to overcome the west African nation's current security challenges.

Africa's most populous nation has also approached other world powers, including France, Britain and China, for the same help, Jonathan said in a radio-television live interview in Abuja.

"We are talking to countries we think can help us out... The United States is number one. I have talked to President Obama at least twice" regarding assisting Nigeria with its security challenges, he said.

He did not say when exactly he opened the talks with the US president and other world leaders.

"We will get over our (security) challenge," he stated.

Jonathan dismissed insinuations that his government was negotiating with Boko Haram Islamist extremists, saying that it is faceless group.

"You don't negotiate with somebody you don't know... The issue of negotiation has not come up," he said.