http://www.haaretzdaily.com/hasen/spages/525351.html<snip>
"U.S. President George W. Bush said Monday he would welcome newly elected Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas to the White House, extending an invitation he refused to offer to the late Yasser Arafat.
Bush said he was heartened by the Palestinian elections and offered his congratulations to Abbas, who was elected by a landslide.
"I look forward to welcoming him here to Washington if he chooses to come here," the president said, talking with reporters in the Oval Office.
Bush said, "It is essential that Israel keep a vision of two states living side by side in peace; and that, as the Palestinians begin to develop the institutions of a state, that the Israel government support the development of those institutions and recognize that it is essential that there be a viable economy, that there be a viable health care system, that people be allowed to start building a society that meets their hopes and needs."