Hamas rejects Abbas's urging to pursue peace with Israel

GAZA CITY -- President Mahmoud Abbas asked Hamas yesterday to form a new Palestinian government and pursue his peace agenda, but the Islamist militant group said talks with the Jewish state would be a waste of time.

Abbas, whose long-dominant Fatah faction was crushed by Hamas in the Jan. 25 parliamentary elections, gave prime minister-designate Ismail Haniyeh a formal letter authorizing him to form a government.

Haniyeh, 43, considered by many to be a pragmatist, said he would study Abbas's letter before responding to its calls to honor past peace deals with the Jewish state.

Hamas later won the agreement of a a tiny independent party to join its government and scheduled its first coalition talks with Abbas's Fatah faction for today.

But Hamas showed no sign of backing down from the calls in its charter to destroy Israel.

Haniyeh said he would not seek to disperse Hamas's armed wing and have its gunmen join the Palestinian security services.

''It is too early to talk about this because there is continued occupation and aggression against the Palestinian people," he said.

In Tehran, Hamas's political leader, Khaled Meshaal, said ''talking to Israel is a waste of time as long as there is no talk about withdrawing from Palestine."

Israeli interim Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said in a televised interview: ''We will fight against Hamas with the strength that is necessary . . . we will build a wall against Hamas, and we know how to do it."

But Israel still hopes for peace, Olmert said, despite the Jewish state's vow to boycott Hamas until it renounces violence and recognizes Israel's right to exist.

''Despite the slimmer chance, hope has not ceased," Olmert told Israel's Channel 1 television.

Hamas has carried out nearly 60 suicide bombings in Israel since a Palestinian uprising began in 2000, but has largely abided by a cease-fire forged a year ago.

Olmert, who surveys predict will win national elections on March 28, has threatened to take unilateral steps to set borders for the Jewish state if peacemaking remains frozen. Last year's pullout from the Gaza Strip was popular with most Israelis.

In the occupied West Bank, Israeli troops shot and wounded seven Palestinians, one seriously, in confrontations with protesters during a raid in the Balata refugee camp, a militant stronghold, Palestinian sources said.

The camp has been under curfew since late Saturday when Israeli troops launched the raid in search of militants suspected of planning suicide bombings. Three Palestinians have been killed and dozens wounded, both sides said.

An Israeli military official said nine wanted militants had been arrested, and ''many more" were being sought.

Some Balata residents complained of food shortages.

''The issue has become intolerable," Abbas told reporters in Gaza. He urged international intervention to halt the raid.

In his letter to Haniyeh, Abbas spelled out guidelines for a future Hamas administration, including a commitment from the militant group to abide by past interim peace accords with Israel, an aide to the president said.

Some Palestinian political analysts predicted a constitutional crisis if Hamas continued to reject Abbas's peace agenda. Others thought a deal could be struck within the five weeks Haniyeh has to form a government.

Haniyeh said he had already begun talks to put together a government and hoped to build ''the widest coalition possible".

The two-seat Independent Palestine party became the first to accept a bid to join a Hamas government, a Hamas spokesman said.