Israel resigned to Hamas participation in elections

Foreign Minister Silvan Shalom had said last week that it would be "madness" for Hamas to be allowed to take part but the government now appears to have backed down from threats to disrupt January's ballot in the absence of support from its chief ally.

Israel had been hoping that Bush would use a summit with Palestinian leader Mahmud Abbas last week to pressure him to bar Hamas from the elections.

But Abbas said that he managed to persuade Bush that it would be better to encourage Hamas's embrace of democracy despite its continued designation by the United States as a terrorist organisation.

A source close to Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon sought to play down the disagreement with Washington, saying the differences were purely tactical.

"There is only a tactical difference -- we believe that Hamas cannot take part in elections as long as it carries out terrorism. The United States thinks otherwise, but agrees with us that any negotiation with Hamas should be ruled out," the source told AFP.

"We refuse to consider any representative of Hamas as a legitimate partner. but we will not prevent Hamas from participating in the election as we have no intention of intervening in the ballot," added the official on condition of anonymity.

"While we are opposed to the participation of Hamas in elections on the grounds that it is a terrorist organisation, we do not envisage arresting political officials who are not implicated in attacks."

Interviewed on Israeli radio, Justice Minister Tzippi Livni failed to take the opportunity to demand that Hamas be prevented from standing in the elections but instead called for the international community "to put pressure on Hamas to renounce terrorism".

"The fact that Hamas wants to take part in the elections should make it sensitive to such pressure," she added.