国际英语新闻：Hamas seeks direct talks with U.S. as Obama pledges to achieve regional peace

Wafa quoted a senior Palestinian source as saying that Obama's letter was a reply to a letter signed by 850,000 Palestinians that addressed to him several months ago on the Internet.

"I will work on achieving peace, security and prosperity in the region," said Obama in his letter which was handed to Abbas' aide Sabri Seidam, according to Wafa.

Seidam said in April that he had launched a campaign to collect 1 million signatures on the Internet to call on the U.S. administration to end the Israeli occupation of the Palestinian territories.

According to Wafa, Obama pledged that the U.S. is committed to the two-state solution and it will work hard on creating a better future for the Palestinian people. He also called on Israel and the Palestinians to end their conflict and sign a peace agreement by the end of this year.

Israeli and Palestinian leaders met in Washington on Sept. 2, during the direct talks, the two sides discussed the permanent status issues, mainly settlement, borders, security, Jerusalem, refugees, water and prisoners.

After that, two rounds of talks, which were also sponsored by the United States, have been held in the Egyptian resort of Sharm el-Sheikh and Jerusalem respectively. The talks so far have not led to any progress due to the two sides' differences over the settlement issue in the West Bank.