The US Senate adopted on Friday a bill to isolate the Hamas-led Palestinian government and to ban contacts with Hamas.

The legislation, approved by voice vote, is similar to a bill the House passed last month.

"None of us want to see a penny of American taxpayer money going to a Hamas-led government that refuses to meet the basic demands not just of the United States, but of the international community," said Democratic Senator Joseph Biden, number two on the Senate foreign relations committee.

However, the bill allows for continued assistance for food, water, health and medicine, as well as for democracy promotion, human rights, and education to help Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas in "fulfilling his duties."

The United States considers Hamas, formally called the Islamic Resistance Movement, to be a terror organization. It has rejected talks with Hamas until it renounces violence, accepts interim peace deals and recognizes Israel's right to exit.

Hamas, sworn to Israel's destruction, won a large parliamentary majority in elections in January and formed a Hamas-led Palestinian cabinet in March.
 
(Xinhua News Agency June 24, 2006)