Hamas-Fatah talks a 'huge' error

JERUSALEM, Aug 14 (Reuters) Israel today said it would be a ''huge'' mistake for the international community to try to bridge differences between Hamas Islamists and the secular Fatah faction of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas.

Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni sought to counter calls from Italian Prime Minister Romano Prodi and British parliamentarians for dialogue with Hamas, whose fighters routed Fatah and seized control of the Gaza Strip in June.

''I know that it looks tempting and I know that the international community is eager to see a kind of an understanding between Hamas and Fatah,'' Livni told a news conference with visiting Japanese Foreign Minister Taro Aso.

''This is wrong. This is a mistake. Big mistake. Huge,'' Livni said, tapping the table for emphasis.

Olmert later spoke by telephone with Prodi about his suggestion that ''one must push for dialogue'' with Hamas.

In the call, Prodi told Olmert that Italy's position ''is and always has been that there should be no contacts with Hamas'' unless it recognises Israel, renounces violence and abides by interim peace deals, Olmert's office said in a statement.

Israel and the United States have tried to isolate Hamas in Gaza while providing economic and political support to Abbas and his Western-backed government in the occupied West Bank.

Livni said the international community's role was critical and ''any compromise with terror, any compromise with these extremists, can lead to undermining the new government in the Palestinian Authority''.

''The idea is that now there is a chance in the dialogue between Israel and the new Palestinian government. We can reach something. It's there,'' Livni said.

Steny Hoyer, the majority leader in the Democratic-led US House of Representatives, emerged from a meeting with Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad voicing confidence Fatah would not seek a new unity pact with Hamas.

''Mr. Fayyad made it very clear that Hamas could not be and would not be a partner in moving forward,'' Hoyer told reporters.

US PRESSURE Aso told reporters Tokyo wanted to support Abbas in ''a visible way''.

In addition to announcing the resumption of direct aid to the Palestinian Authority, Aso will meet Palestinian officials, Livni and the foreign minister of Jordan on Wednesday in the West Bank city of Jericho to discuss economic development.

Olmert has been under pressure from the Bush administration to take more concrete steps to bolster Abbas before a US-sponsored conference on the long-stalled peace process expected to take place in November.

Olmert has started releasing frozen tax funds and freeing some Palestinian prisoners as well as holding talks with Abbas on ''fundamental issues'' for establishing a Palestinian state.

During their meeting last week, Olmert assured Abbas he would also begin to remove some of the roadblocks that restrict Palestinian travel in the West Bank, Palestinian officials said.

But senior Abbas aide Saeb Erekat, who had expected to receive a roadblock removal plan from Israeli Defence Minister Ehud Barak this week, said: ''They told us they're not ready yet.

I'm really disappointed.'' Israel's Yedioth Ahronoth newspaper on Friday quoted Barak as saying he would not carry out Olmert's roadblock plan.

Israel says its checkpoints and unmanned roadblocks, usually piles of rubble on roads linking towns or villages in the West Bank, help prevent attacks by militants. Palestinians call them collective punishment.

Reuters SBA VP0143