France Admits Contacts With Hamas in Breach of Boycott

France admitted yesterday that a retired ambassador had held informal contacts with the Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas in breach of the boycott by the Quartet of Middle East peacemakers. But Britain insisted that conditions for engagement had not changed and that Hamas had not met them.

Bernard Kouchner, the foreign minister, confirmed that France had had "contacts, not relations" with Hamas leaders for several months, adding: "We must be able to talk if we want to play a role."

The admission came in response to a report that Yves Aubin de la Messuzière, a former envoy to Iraq, met Mahmoud Zahar, a top Hamas leader, and Ismael Haniyeh, its deposed prime minister, in Gaza a month ago.

The diplomatic flap reflected the sensitivity over the issue of contact with the movement, which won the Palestinian elections in 2006 and seized control of the Gaza Strip from the western-backed Palestinian Authority (PA) last June.

Israel, the US and the EU consider it a terrorist organization. Hamas, which has fired thousands of rockets into Israel, says it does so in self-defence. Its charter rejects Israel's existence but it has offered a long-term ceasefire and stopped suicide bombings in 2004.

The formal position of the Quartet - the US, EU, UN and Russia - is that Hamas must end violence, recognize Israel and accept previous peace agreements, including the 1993 Oslo deal between Israel and the Palestine Liberation Organization. But with momentum building for a ceasefire in Gaza and a growing sense in Europe that the policy of isolation - and the siege of 1.5 million Gazans - has not worked, alternative strategies are being quietly explored.

Kouchner's comments triggered a statement from the Foreign Office in London reiterating the conditions for engaging with Hamas. "We do not believe that these principles are set unreasonably high and believe they remain the fundamental conditions for a viable peace process," it said. "We hope Hamas will accept the principles and grasp the opportunity for dialog and progress."

In Washington, a state department spokesman condemned the French contacts as neither "wise nor appropriate".

This is a case where public certainties mask debate behind the scenes. British and EU officials say privately that a ceasefire could change the situation, since Israel, while avoiding direct contact with Hamas, is likely to forge agreement with it, albeit via Egyptian mediation.

"It's more contact than negotiations," said one diplomat. "It's a matter of exploring with Hamas what has to happen for them to be brought into the tent. A ceasefire would give greater credibility to the idea that maybe Hamas can be brought into some kind of political accommodation."

Saudi Arabia has called for renewed dialogue between Hamas and Mahmoud Abbas's Fatah movement, which dominates the PA and is engaged in negotiations with Israel. But Abbas opposes any rapprochement with the Islamists since it would weaken his position. The US remains implacably opposed to Hamas, with President George Bush calling on Sunday for it to be confronted.

Israel would resist any change, with the foreign ministry in Jerusalem insisting it had been assured there was no shift in France's position. Its defence minister, Ehud Barak, was discussing the ceasefire proposal with the Egyptian president, Hosni Mubarak, in the Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheik.

De la Messuzière told Le Figaro newspaper that his Hamas interlocutors "were ready to accept a Palestinian state within the 1967 borders, which amounts to an indirect recognition of Israel". Jimmy Carter, the former US president, reported a similar message when he met Hamas leaders recently during a visit that was condemned by the US and Israel.