Reports of contacts between the EU and the militant group Hamas surfaced on Thursday and were met with protests by Israel, which said that such contacts send the wrong message at a time when efforts are being made to strengthen the moderates in the Palestinian Authority.
The contacts were reported in the Israeli newspaper Haaretz, which said that the EU had informed the Bush administration of a substantial shift in its level of contact with Hamas. It did not give a source for the report from Washington.
Sheik Hassan Youssef, a member of Hamas' political wing, said in a telephone interview that low-level meetings had taken place. He said they were a step in the right direction after local elections in which Hamas had made a strong showing. He said the US and the EU should adopt a position "to respect the will of the Palestinian people in the elections."
In Brussels, Christina Gallach, a spokesman for Javier Solana, the EU's policy chief, denied there had been contacts.
"It is not true that the EU has changed its policy regarding Hamas," she said. "It keeps Hamas on the list of terrorist organizations. The EU has had no contacts with Hamas."
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