WASHINGTON (AFP) - Twitter is aflutter over Oprah. The megastar talk show host plans to send her first message, or "tweet," on the hot micro-blogging service on "The Oprah Winfrey Show" on Friday.

Oprah announced the creation of her Twitter account, @oprah, on her Facebook page on Thursday and attracted more than 34,000 followers in just a few hours.

She said the guest on her show on Friday would be the man she described as the "King of Twitter" -- Hollywood actor Ashton Kutcher.

Kutcher, who is married to actress Demi Moore, is currently engaged in a high-profile battle with 24-hours news channel CNN to be the first to gather one million followers on Twitter.

Kutcher, who uses the handle @aplusk on Twitter, was about 30,000 followers short at 2130 GMT on Thursday while CNN's breaking news feed, @cnnbrk, needed another 25,000 followers to reach one million.

Oprah is the latest celebrity to begin using Twitter, which allows users to pepper their followers with messages of a maximum 140 characters.

Other well-known users include British actor and playwright Stephen Fry, NBA star Shaquille O'Neal and seven-time Tour de France champion Lance Armstrong.