Amman - The Islamic Action Front (IAF), Jordan's largest political party, on Wednesday expressed guarded optimism over the election of Barak Obama as the next US president and said they considered his win an "apology" from the American people to the peoples of Iraq and Afghanistan.

"We welcome Obama's election and believe that his win represents a clear message inside as well as outside America," IAF Secretary General Zaki Bani Ershaid told Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa.

"Obama's victory is also tantamount to an apology from the American people for the crimes committed by the outgoing Republican administration in Iraq, Afghanistan and elsewhere," he added.

Bani Ershaid said that his party, the political arm of the influential Muslim Brotherhood movement, was "cautiously optimistic" over the change promised by Obama and believed that the "starting- point for this change should find expression in a correction of the US foreign policy on Palestine, Iraq and Afghanistan."

"A real change in the US policies cannot materialize without rectifying the erroneous attitude considering Israel an ally, withdrawing troops from Iraq," he said. (dpa)