Washington, Feb. 10: The United States, President barrack Obama has said is ready to explore every opportunity to engage with the Iranian leadership, and not see it as a rogue state with whom business cannot be done.

On future relations with Iran, Obama told reporters at his first press conference: "We should take an approach with Iran that employs all of the resources at the United States disposal, and that includes diplomacy, and so my national security team is currently reviewing our existing Iran policy, looking at areas where we can have constructive dialogue, where we can directly engage with them.",

"And my expectation is in the coming months we will be looking for openings that can be created where we can start sitting across the table face to face - diplomatic overtures that will allow us to move our policy in a new direction," he added.

"There''s been a lot of mistrust built up over the years, so it''s not going to happen overnight, and it''s important that even as we engage in this direct diplomacy, we are very clear about certain deep concerns that we have as a country. That Iran understands that we find the funding of terrorist organizations unacceptable. That we''re clear about the fact that," Obama said.

As far as the situation in the Middle East was concerned, CBS quoted the President as saying: "There will be clear objectives. If you look at how we''ve approached the Middle East, my designation of George Mitchell as a special envoy to help deal with the Arab-Israeli situation, some of the interviews that I''ve given, it indicates the degree to which we want to do things differently in the region." (ANI)