Indonesia eyes Hamas meeting to end infighting

JAKARTA, Jan 26 (Reuters) - Indonesia wants to hold a special meeting with Hamas this year, a Jakarta official said on Friday, aimed at helping end internal rifts between the Palestinian ruling group and other factions.

Indonesia, the world's most populous Muslim country, wants Palestinian factions to end their infighting and form a united government that could open chances for the establishment of a Palestinian state that could co-exist with Israel. Indonesian Foreign Minister Hassan Wirajuda would use a meeting with Hamas leader Khaled Meshaal in Damascus in early February to discuss convening an Indonesia-Hamas conference in Jakarta, Indonesian foreign affairs spokesman Kristiarto Legowo told a news briefing.

''The minister has said the timeframe was within three months. We need to have agreement with the involved parties in this matter first,'' said Legowo.

Asked whether anyone from Fatah, the rival group to Hamas, would be invited to the Jakarta conference, Legowo said: ''We will only convene with Hamas first.'' Hamas, which seeks the demise of Israel, swept legislative seats early last year and took the executive branch in March.

Last May, the Hamas government's foreign minister Mahmoud al-Zahar visited Indonesia and called on Jakarta to take a role in the troubled Middle East peace process.

Legowo said the Indonesian foreign minister planned to talk to Meshaal about the meeting. ''They will brainstorm what methods are best to realise our plan.'' Indonesia is legally secular and its predominantly Islamic population is largely moderate, but many Indonesian Muslims are passionately pro-Palestinian and Jakarta has no formal ties with Israel.

Indonesia supports the Israeli-Palestinian ''roadmap'' peace accord sponsored by the so-called ''Quartet'' of the United States, the European Union, Russia and the United Nations.

The Quartet has said the Hamas-led government has failed to commit itself to that scheme and demanded it recognise Israel, renounce violence and accept interim peace accords.

Ties between Hamas and Fatah, which was the Palestinian party that signed the roadmap, remain tense especially after shots were fired at al-Zahar's convoy last month killing the Hamas minister's bodyguard and wounding his son.

But earlier this week, Palestinian factions including Hamas and Fatah resumed talks on forming a coalition government.

REUTERS PDM VC1422