Hamas ready to hold talks with Israel

"Negotiations are not our intention, negotiation is a method," said Mahmud Zahar, leader of the powerful movement in its Gaza Strip stronghold, in a rare interview with Israeli radio.

"If the method is able to liberate our land, to liberate our people from Israeli jails, to reconstruct what was destroyed by the long-standing Israeli occupation, at that time we can discuss," added Zahar, speaking in English.

His interview comes just over two months before Hamas is to contest its first parliamentary polls, only the second ever ballot of its kind in the Palestinian territories.

Hamas, the most powerful Islamist faction in the territories, is expected to make significant gains, undercutting the decade-long power monopoly exercised by the more moderate Fatah party of Palestinian leader Mahmud Abbas.

Israel says it will not facilitate the crunch vote as long as Hamas -- whose charter calls for the destruction of the Jewish state -- insists on running.

But looking ahead to the post-election period, when Hamas members will probably take up seats in parliament and even join a coalition Palestinian cabinet, Zahar did not rule out talks.

"It depends on the other side, because the Israelis are not intending to make negotiation ... Let us wait and see after the elections," the Hamas official said.

Zahar called on Israel to withdraw from the occupied West Bank and east Jerusalem and "to give the Palestinians a chance to live as human beings".

He flatly ruled out any question of Hamas disarming, as demanded by Israel, and called the Jewish state a foreign body in the Middle East.

Israel, which has denounced Hamas's decision to join the political mainstream while still bearing arms, dismissed Zahar's declarations as tactics designed only to undercut intense Israeli pressure on the movement.

"There is nothing to negotiate as long as Hamas sticks to its ultimate objectives and continues to carry out attacks and fire rockets," senior defence ministry official Amos Gilad told public radio.