Published yesterday (updated) 09/06/2010 21:30

Bethlehem - Ma'an/Agencies -

US President Barack Obama told reporters on Wednesday that Israel's blockade of the Gaza Strip was unsustainable, after meeting with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas at the White House for official talks.

Obama said there remained "lots of work" before a peace agreement is reached, the online news site Palestinenote wrote, referring to Israel's raid on a Gaza bound aid flotilla in which nine passengers were killed in international waters.

"We condemned all the actions that led to the crisis," he said of the raid on the convoy. "We know the situation is unsustainable," the news site reported Obama as saying who "discussed how to promote a better situation in Gaza," with Abbas.

The Palestinian president said ahead of talks in the White House that ending the Gaza siege would be on top of the agenda with his US counterpart, with earlier reports suggesting Obama would discuss ways to increase aid to the coastal enclave. Meanwhile, the Reuters news agency reported that Obama offered 400 million US dollars in aid, as the global condemnation of the flotilla attack quickly turned to calls to end the siege on Gaza.

Israel must allow "more goods and services" into Gaza, Obama told reporters, after meeting with Abbas privately for an hour, and later with senior US and Palestinian officials including US Middle East envoy George Mitchell and chief PLO negotiator Saeb Erekat, Palestinenote reported.

Abbas told reporters that they held "very important discussions on Gaza. We appreciate the effort of the United States on improving the [Palestinian] economy and we are persistent about making more improvements. I highly appreciate Obama's persistence in continuing the push for peace. This is our interest, the world's and the United States'."

Thanking the US for its support of Gaza, Abbas said Obama's comments reflected "a positive signal that the US cares about the suffering [of Gaza's population.]"

Responding to remarks made by his US counterpart, calling on the PA to curb incitement against Israel, Abbas said " ... we have nothing to do with [it]. We are interested in peace with Israel in order to bring about an independent state," Palestinenote quoted him as saying.

The US president further called on Israel to comply with an investigation into the flotilla raid, saying "The United Nations called for a credible investigation that meets international standards. That's what we expect. I've said to the Israelis directly 'it is in your interest to know exactly what happened.'"