'Maya made many trips to Chicago and elsewhere throughout the campaign, and she and her brother have a great relationship,' said Alan S. King, a lawyer in Chicago who is a friend of Obama.

King said he believed Obama would be 'very happy to have Maya and her family close by'.

The siblings, who share the same mother, Stanley Ann Dunham Soetoro, spent several years together in Indonesia and in Hawaii before Dunham decided to return to Indonesia with Soetoro-Ng while Obama remained in Hawaii with his grandparents.

But Soetoro-Ng has said they two have stayed connected.