NEW YORK, June 17: Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert has said the split between Hamas and Abbas’s Fatah movement offered a new opportunity for renewing ties with the Palestinians, but refused to indicate whether intended to revive peace talks, stalled for almost seven years.

He was talking to reporters en route to New York where he is slated to hold three-day talks with US and UN leaders set to focus on the fallout from Hamas’s dramatic seizure of the Gaza Strip.

Olmert was to meet United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon and Jewish leaders here on Sunday before heading to Washington for a summit with President George W. Bush at the White House on Tuesday.

The visit came shortly after Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas swore in his new cabinet led by a Western-backed politician and immediately outlawed the rival Hamas movement’s fighters.

And hours before Olmert was to meet Ban to discuss, among other issues, UN efforts to disarm the Shiite Hezbollah militia in Lebanon, two rockets were fired from Lebanon into northern Israel, causing no casualties but adding tension to the crisis.

Olmert voiced cautious optimism over chances of renewing talks with the Palestinians, although a senior official emphasized they would only pertain to the West Bank, where the new cabinet has control.

“A reality has been created in recent days which we haven’t had in a long time for diplomatic steps with the evolving Palestinian Authority. We intend to work with all our strength to realise this opportunity as much as we can,” he told reporters on board his plane.

The international community has welcomed the new cabinet led by Salam Fayyad which is widely expected to recognise conditions set by the Quartet for Middle East peace to lift a 15-month long crunching economic and diplomatic boycott.

The boycott was imposed after Hamas – considered a terror outfit by the European Union, Israel, and the United States – assumed power more than a year ago.

The conditions include recognition of Israel, renouncing violence and agreeing to abide by past interim peace deals.

Olmert told reporters en route to the US that Israel was ready to normalise ties with the government, saying that “a Palestinian government that is not a Hamas government is a partner and we will work with them accordingly”. The United States has announced its intention to renew the badly-needed financial aid to the Palestinian Authority, and Israel was also expected to release withheld Palestinian tax money estimated at $600 million.

“If the new government recognises the Quartet conditions, Israel will be glad to return to full cooperation with it, including in the financial issues, as used to be the case in the past,” a senior government official said.

One official said Olmert and Bush would first opt for strengthening Abbas and allow him to tighten his control over the West Bank, where Fatah militants have arrested Hamas members and ransacked the group's offices and centres.—AFP