Newly-installed Palestinian Foreign Minister Mahmoud Zahar said the United States is biased towards Israel, guilty of crimes against the Muslim and Arab world and is widening the rift between the American people and those of the Middle East. Zahar, considered one of the more hardline officials in the Palestinians' new Hamas-led government, also said his group would not cave in to international pressure to change its ways and that it had no plans to negotiate with Israel. Responding to a statement by US President George W. Bush, that Washington would provide no aid to a Palestinian government headed by Hamas unless it changes its extremist policies, Zahar said Bush's comments were in line with American support for Israel in the United Nations, and its massive aid to Israel. "America is committing big crimes against the Arab and Islamic countries," Zahar told the Associated Press late Wednesday at his Gaza home. "This new decision, will intensify the gap between the American people, American interests and the Middle East in general," Zahar said.