US TO COOL TO FATAH IF IT JOINS HAMAS GOV.

Fatah faces US cutoff if it joins Hamas government.

JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Washington plans to curtail contacts with President Mahmoud Abbas’s Fatah faction and other parties if they join a Palestinian government led by the militant group Hamas, Western diplomatic sources said on Monday. The warning came as Fatah officials held another round of inconclusive coalition talks in Gaza with Hamas, which defeated long-dominant Fatah in January elections. Fatah has so far said it has no intention of joining the new government, which the law states must be formed by the end of the month, unless Hamas, whose charter calls for Israel’s destruction, changes its political program. Hamas plans to present a new “position paper” to Fatah before talks resume on Tuesday and aims to form a government by the end of the week, Hamas spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri said.