By DPA
Paris : Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas has called for new Gaza Strip elections under the security of an international force, in order to save Palestinian unity.
What Palestinians now needed above all was hope, not just security, he told reporters after the meeting with French President Nicolas Sarkozy here Friday.
The meeting was held to discuss the situation since Hamas took over the Gaza Strip two weeks ago.
Sarkozy's office earlier said France would shortly transfer 15 million euros ($20 million) in direct aid to the people of the Gaza Strip.
France would help the Palestinians restore peace and build a state, presidential spokesman David Martinon had said on Thursday.
"The Palestinian authorities are in a particularly tricky position," said Martinon. "In this context President Sarkozy will support Abbas politically."
The rift between the rival Palestinian factions of Hamas and Abbas' Fatah deepened to unprecedented dimensions with Hamas' takeover of the Gaza Strip amid bloody clashes.