US Democratic Senator John Kerry, chairman of the US Senate's foreign relations committee, described the situation facing Egypt's first democratically elected president as "very challenging, especially in the absence of a new constitution" defining his powers.
He added that Egypt's next president would have to deal with high unemployment rates, rising crime rates and economic recession.
Kerry called on Egyptians "not to lose the bet that they made in Tahrir Square," in a reference to the popular uprising early last year that unseated longstanding president Hosni Mubarak.
Senators urged Egyptians to accept the results of the just-concluded presidential race, stressing that, if an Islamist president was elected, the US government would deal with him in an open-minded way.
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