US President Barack Obama has termed the situation in disputed Gaza Strip as unsustainable and called for a better approach that takes into account both Israel's security concerns and the needs of people in Gaza. <br/><br/>Addressing a joint press conference in Washington with visiting Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas, he said, the status quo is now existing is inherently unstable. Obama-Abbas meeting came a little more than a week after Israel's deadly May 31 raid on a flotilla, killing nine people, majority of them Turks. Obama said, he and President Abbas mainly discussed the ways to ease the situation in blockaded Gaza strip. <br/><br/>The US president said the flotilla raid was a "tragedy" and that it's important that we get all the facts. Abbas called for lifting the Israeli blockade and opening Gaza crossings.<br/><br/>US President Barack Obama has pledged to forge significant progress in the Middle East this year calling the humanitarian situation in Gaza unsustainable and cautioned that a Palestinian state was the only long-term solution.<br/><br/>Welcoming Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas to the White House, Obama promised the full weight of US diplomacy on the latest crisis and vowed to persuade Israelis and Palestinians out of a dead end and into direct peace talks. He also unveiled 400 million dollars of US aid for Gaza and the West Bank for housing, education and infrastructure. The money will be channelled through the US Agency for International Development and the United Nations Relief Works Agency. <br/><br/>President Obama also said that it may be possible to turn the tragedy over the Gaza aid convoy into an opportunity to create a situation where lives in Gaza are actually, directly improved. Palestinian President termed the aid package as positive. <br/><br/>The White House talks came with the Arab world still enraged about the Israeli raid on the aid flotilla, which killed nine activists.