  The EGRET telescope has identified a gamma-ray source at the Galactic center.
We point out here that the spectral features of this source are compatible with
the gamma-ray flux induced by pair annihilations of dark matter weakly
interacting massive particles (WIMPs). We show that the discrimination between
this interpretation and other viable explanations will be possible with GLAST,
the next major gamma-ray telescope in space, on the basis of both the spectral
and the angular signature of the WIMP-induced component. If, on the other hand,
the data will point to an alternative explanation, we prove that there will
still be the possibility for GLAST to single out a weaker dark matter source at
the Galactic center. The potential of GLAST has been explored both in the
context of a generic simplified toy-model for WIMP dark matter, and in a more
specific setup, the case of dark matter neutralinos in the minimal supergravity
framework. In the latter, we find that even in the case of moderate dark matter
densities in the Galactic center region, there are portions of the parameter
space which will be probed by GLAST.
