The United States will not provide the Palestinian militant group Hamas, a U.S.-listed terrorist organization, with any funding, acting spokesman of the State Department Tom Casey said here Monday.

"The United States cannot, by law, and will not provide any funding that will go to Hamas," Casey told a regular news briefing.

Hamas is formally called the Islamic Resistance Movement.

However, Casey noted that the United States will consider the humanitarian needs of the Palestinian people.

"We believe it's important that we take into consideration the needs of the humanitarian needs of the Palestinian people. We're committed to supporting those humanitarian needs, and we're going to be looking to see how we can do that," he said.

U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said Sunday that the Bush administration is contemplating an increase of aid to the Palestinian people while it bars direct aid to the Palestinian Authority if its Hamas-led government refuses to abandon its anti- Israel policies.

The United States "remains absolutely committed to a better life for the Palestinian people. I emphasize that we are looking at ways to even increase our humanitarian assistance for the Palestinian people," the New York Times quoted Rice as saying on the plane to Brazil.

The United States has cut off aid to the Palestinian authority and asked for a return of 50 million dollars for reconstruction projects since Hamas was elected to a legislative majority in January.

But Washington provides food, health care and other aid to Palestinians through contributions to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency, the World Food Program and other agencies, including private groups operating in Gaza and the West Bank, U.S. officials said.

Source: Xinhua