The United States urged on Wednesday the Islamic Resistant Movement (Hamas) to be disarmed and dismantled and said the militant organization can have "no role" in politics as long as it targets Israel.

"Hamas is a terrorist organization. It needs to be disarmed. It needs to be dismantled. We've made that very clear," White House spokesman Scott McClellan told reporters.

"You can't have organizations involved in politics that are also carrying out attacks or armed outside of that political process. We've made that very clear," McClellan said, in a reference to Palestinian elections in January.

The spokesman said that it was up to the Palestinian Authority to make it clear to Hamas that "as long as they continue to engage in such activities that are armed, that there really is no role for them to play in the political process."

Last week US President George W. Bush met Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, urging him to do more to stop armed groups from attacking Israeli targets.

Source: Xinhua