June 18 (Bloomberg) -- President George W. Bush pledged ``help and support'' for Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas without offering immediate backing for the resumption of peace talks, an administration spokesman said.

``We are committed to working with this new emergency government,'' White House Press Secretary Tony Snow told reporters in Washington, in describing a telephone call today between Bush and Abbas.

The conversation followed the Hamas takeover of the Gaza Strip last week. Abbas, who heads the rival Fatah movement, is working with a new Cabinet in the West Bank that has been purged of members belonging to Hamas, which Israel and the U.S. consider a terrorist group. With Hamas removed from the government, the U.S. is reviewing resumption of economic aid that was suspended when the militant group won parliamentary elections last year.

Bush and Abbas talked a few hours before Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert is set to arrive in Washington to draw up a new blueprint with Bush for making peace with the Palestinians.

Israel and the so-called Quartet of powers backing a Middle East peace agreement, which includes the U.S., should resume peace talks immediately, Nabil Abu Rudeineh, an aide to Abbas, told a news conference in the West Bank city of Ramallah today.

Abbas's new government, which is committed to the 1994 Oslo peace accords, is ``a test of Israel's good faith'' toward the peace process, he said. The charter of Hamas, an Arabic acronym for Islamic Resistance Movement, calls for the destruction of the Jewish state.

Direct Aid

The U.S. may be preparing to join the European Union and resume direct financial assistance to the Palestinian Authority now that it no longer includes Hamas, which the U.S. is prohibited from giving money to because of its designation as a terrorist group.

``We're doing our own review. I would say just stay tuned on the matter,'' State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said in Washington. ``We have a new Palestinian government that has returned to those principles the previous government had,'' he added, suggesting an announcement on aid was forthcoming.

The U.S. suspended direct assistance to the Palestinian Authority with the formation of a Hamas-led government in March 2006.

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, asked today at a photo opportunity at the State Department when the U.S. would resume the financial support, said she would speak about the issue later.

To contact the reporter on this story: Judy Mathewson in Washington at jmathewson@bloomberg.net; Roger Runningen in Washington at rrunningen@bloomberg.net

Last Updated: June 18, 2007 11:39 EDT