Olmert: Israel ready to talk to Abbas

JERUSALEM, June 17 (UPI) -- Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert promised Saturday to cooperate with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas' new government.

In an interview with The New York Times as he left for Washington to meet with President George W. Bush, Olmert said the split between Abbas' Fatah party and Hamas "can be a new opening."

"I am willing to cooperate with Abu Mazen if there will not be a Hamas government and meet all my commitments, including all the financial commitments, no question about it," Olmert said, using Abbas' alternate name. "To give it to a Hamas government is reckless. To give it to a Fatah government is an opportunity."

The United States and European Union cut off aid to the Palestinian Authority, and Israel began withholding taxes it collects for the Palestinians after Hamas won a parliamentary majority last year. Israel now holds $562 million.

On Friday, Sean McCormick, a spokesman for the U.S. State Department, suggested the United States may end its embargo on the West Bank. U.S. and Israeli officials reportedly hope that with the restoration of aid, Abbas' stronghold in the West Bank will become stable and more prosperous while Gaza, under Hamas, sinks into chaos.