"The talk was friendly and touched upon future relations of Georgia and the U.S.," the office said of Monday's conversation. It added that Obama said he hoped a meeting with Saakashvili would take place soon.
Later Monday, Saakashvili talked by telephone with U.S. Vice President-elect Joe Biden. The presidential office said they "discussed the situation in Georgia in detail, the consequences of the Russian occupation, measures to minimize damage, ways to settle the conflict and the role of the future U.S. administration in the matter."
Earlier the office of the U.S. president-elect also said Obama and Biden had held talks with Saakashvili.
In early August, Russia fought a brief war with Georgia after Georgian forces attacked its breakaway region of South Ossetia in an attempt to bring it back under central control. On August 26, Russia recognized South Ossetia and Abkhazia, another separatist Georgian republic, as independent states.
Abkhazia and South Ossetia broke away from Georgia following the collapse of the Soviet Union in the early 1990s amid armed conflicts that claimed thousands of lives.
