President Bush is expected to reassure Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert today that the U.S. will not negotiate with Hamas, the group that won Palestinian elections in January and which the Bush administration considers a terrorist organization.

“We are not going to recognize Hamas until they renounce violence,” White House Press Secretary Tony Snow told reporters aboard Air Force One on Monday.

State Department spokesman Tom Casey added, “The Hamas-led government’s refusal to renounce terrorism does harm to the interests of the Palestinian people and certainly makes it so that they’re risking further isolation as they move forward.”

Nonetheless, Bush will emphasize to Olmert that “the viability of the Palestinian Authority is a key matter,” according to Snow. Though the administration refuses to deal with the Hamas party, which won a majority of seats in Palestinian parliament, it continues to work with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas of the rival Fatah party.

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“Well, he is the elected president of the Palestinian Authority,” Casey said.

“And we certainly believe that he is someone that we can have contacts with.”

Olmert, who is making his first visit to Washington since succeeding former Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, will huddle with Bush in the White House in what Snow described as a “getting-to-know-you meeting.”

Bush was not expected to unveil any new proposals in the search for peace between Israelis and Palestinians.

But he and Olmert were expected to discuss Iran’s nuclear ambitions.

On Sunday, Olmert told CNN that Iran was within months of achieving its goal of building an atomic bomb.

“The technological threshold is very close,” he said. “It can be measured in months, rather than years.”

bsammon@dcexaminer.com