Mahmoud Abbas said he hopes to meet Barack Obama soon.
The Palestinian Authority president at a news conference in Budapest, where he is the guest of the Hungarian president, said he believes the newly elected U.S. president is serious about helping Israel and the Palestinians to reach a peace accord.
Abbas told reporters that he hopes Obama will be more sympathetic to the Palestinian cause than his predecessors in the White House.
In response to a question from an Israeli reporter, Abbas said it would be up to Obama to decide whether to talk to leaders of Hamas.
