U.S. will cut off aid to Hamas-led government

LONDON -- The United States and other would-be Mideast peacemakers struggled Monday to present a clear ultimatum to the Palestinians' incoming Hamas leaders that they must change their ways to keep the foreign aid they desperately need.\nThe future of aid was unclear, with both Hamas and Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas appealing for continued world support, President Bush insisting the United States won't give direct aid to a government that includes terrorists, and European leaders hedging their bets. Of the Palestinian Authority's $1.6 billion annual budget, $1 billion comes from Europe, the United States and other donor countries and international agencies, $70 million of that from the United States.\nAt meetings between U.S. and European diplomats, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice minimized any differences regarding aid to an extremist Islamic group that does not recognize Israel's right to exist.\n"Everybody is saying exactly the same thing. ... You cannot be on one hand dedicated to peace and on the other dedicated to violence. Those two things are irreconcilable," she said.\nRice was meeting with other members of the so-called Quartet that has tried to shepherd Israel and the Palestinians back to the peace table. The group, which includes the United States, Russia, the European Union and the United Nations, is already on record as saying "there is a fundamental contradiction between armed group and militia activities and the building of a democratic state."\nA Hamas leader said his movement had written to the Quartet, asking for direct and unconditional talks and offering assurances that international aid would not go to Palestinian militants.\n"We call on you to transfer all aid to the Palestinian treasury," Ismail Haniyeh, a Hamas leader in Gaza, told a news conference. "We assure you that all the revenues will be spent on salaries, daily life and infrastructure."\nHamas also has said it would try to turn to the Arab and Muslim world for money if the United States and Europe cut back.\nHamas won a surprise victory in last week's legislative elections, setting the Islamic militant group up to run the next government in the Palestinian territories bordering Israel. But the wary international reaction to their victory raised questions about how the Palestinian Authority would finance its annual budget.\nAbbas, the U.S.-backed head of the defeated Fatah Party, remains as president but the extent of his power is not yet clear.