Palestinian Hamas denies statement mourning Zarqawi

GAZA, June 9 (Reuters) The ruling Palestinian faction Hamas today denied issuing a statement mourning the killing of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, al Qaeda's leader in Iraq, but hailed him as a symbol of resistance to occupation.

Reuters received a statement yesterday saying that Hamas mourned Zarqawi, killed in a strike north of Baghdad by US warplanes on Wednesday.

Sami Abu-Zuhri, a Hamas spokesman, said today that ''Hamas did not issue any statement in this regard.'' He also said that Hamas ''reiterates its supportive position to all liberation movements and foremost the Iraqi liberation movement, for which Zarqawi was one of the symbols in the face of the American occupation.'' Hamas, an Islamic militant group, took over the Palestinian government in March after winning elections.

It is formally committed to destroying the Jewish state, but has said it could follow a long term truce if Israel withdraws from the occupied West Bank and Arab East Jerusalem, captured in the 1967 war, following a pullout from the Gaza Strip last year.

Hamas, branded a terrorist organisation by the United States and Europe, has in the past distanced itself from violence blamed on al-Qaeda, though it has used similar suicide tactics during a Palestinian uprising.

The Hamas government has been under a world financial boycott that has crippled the Palestinian Authority economically in a bid to pressure it to recognise Israel, renounce violence and accept past accords.

REUTERS SHR PM1605