US President George W. Bush said he was pleased with the choice of Mr Mahmoud Abbas as the new Palestinian leader and said the roadmap for the Middle East peace process would be published when his cabinet was in place.
"I'm pleased with the new leader of the Palestinian authority. I look forward to him finally putting his cabinet in place so we can release the roadmap," Mr Bush told reporters after a summit meeting with British Prime Minister Tony Blair in Northern Ireland.
Mr Bush also said it was a hopeful time in the Middle East and he believed "substantial progress" could be made on peace. He was determined to put as much effort into obtaining Middle East peace as Blair had put into a Northern Ireland settlement.