A Hamas official on Tuesday confirmed that the Islamic movement's Gaza rulers were holding indirect talks with Quartet envoy Tony Blair.

Ahmed Yousef, an advisor to Hamas's foreign affairs ministry, told Xinhua that the talks "were aiming at knowing Hamas's vision regarding the peace process and the movement's core thoughts about dealing with the West."

Yousef added that the meetings involved people from Blair's office and arranged "through particular channels and mediations."

He would not say when these contacts took place "because it is not wise to talk about these details now." However, Yousef continued that "there was more than one meeting in addition to correspondences involving various levels."

The Mideast Quartet, which comprises the United States, the European Union, Russia and the United Nations, recommended the world not to deal with Hamas when the Islamic movement won parliamentary elections in 2006 unless it recognizes Israel, renounces violence and accepts peace deals.

In general, the US and the EU refer to Hamas as a terrorist organization due to its charter which calls for erasing Israel from the Middle East map.

Blair's mandate was to help Israel and the Palestinian National Authority (PNA), led by moderate president Mahmoud Abbas, make progress in peace talks to establish a Palestinian statehood alongside Israel.

But Hamas's power-struggle against Abbas and his Fatah party, which did not end with Hamas taking over the Gaza Strip and driving pro-Abbas forces to the West Bank, weakened Abbas' position before Israel and the international community.

(Xinhua News Agency June 3, 2009)