President George W. Bush is set to renew his commitment to Mideast peace and announce new aid to help the embattled Palestinian president create a viable state that can exist with Israel, administration officials said Sunday. Bush, taking on a more personal, high-profile role in the conflict, planned to speak Monday at the White House about U.S. financial and diplomatic support for President Mahmoud Abbas. He controls just the West Bank after the Hamas group gained authority in Gaza in June. «The president sees there is an opportunity there now to show the Palestinian people a choice between the kind of violence and chaos under Hamas in Gaza and the prospect, under President Abbas and Prime Minister (Salem) Fayyad, for an effective, democratic Palestinian state that can be on the way toward what we all want, which is a two-state solution _ a Palestinian homeland for the Palestinian people,» Bush's national security adviser was quoted as saying by the Associated Press. Stephen Hadley did not elaborate about the type of financial assistance Bush planned to discuss. But a senior administration official said Hadley was signaling that the president would announce aid above the $86 million (¤62.4 million) that the White House already has requested from Congress. That money was to help provide security for Abbas. The administration also has said that it would contribute $40 million (¤29 million) to the United Nations to help the Palestinians, particularly in the Gaza Strip now controlled by Hamas.
