After losing Gaza in a swift, five-day Hamas assault on his forces, Abbas moved quickly to cement his rule in the West Bank. He replaced the prime minister, Ismail Haniyeh of Hamas, with Finance Minister Salam Fayyad, a US-educated, internationally respected economist.

Fayyad then moved forward with plans to form an emergency government - a move that Hamas has deemed illegal. The new government was sworn in by Sunday.

"I think Fayyad, the newly named prime minister, is a serious, serious person with real capability," Sen. Joseph Biden, D-Del, said Sunday on ABC's "This Week." "I think we should be supporting him. I'm confident the Israelis are going to do that, but it's a very difficult situation.

"We have to do what we can, along with the Israelis, to ease the burden on the West Bank to give Abbas and Fayyad an opportunity to demonstrate some progress while containing Hamas in Gaza."

The State Department began hinting about the coming shift on Friday, but a statement from the United States and other nations working toward Mideast peace on Saturday made no mention of a resumption in aid.

The Bush administration has quickly pressed Israel to ease its freeze on tax revenues it collects monthly on behalf of the Palestinian Authority. It is not clear whether Israel will make that move now, but the tax receipts are expected to be discussed during Olmert's visit with Rice and Bush's national security adviser Stephen Hadley on Monday and with the president on Tuesday.

In New York on Sunday, Olmert said his country would be a "genuine partner" of a new Palestinian government and promised to consider releasing the hundreds of millions of dollars in frozen tax funds.

The senior US official, who spoke on condition of anonymity to describe internal discussions, said that any US gestures toward Abbas will be made independently of Israel.

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