Russia`s foreign minister said Friday that Moscow is maintaining contact with Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas as part of the Middle East settlement process.

Factional clashes in June saw Hamas fighters wrest control of the Gaza Strip from pro-presidential Fatah loyalists leaving the West Bank in the hands of Fatah. While the other members of the Quartet of Middle East mediators - the UN, the U.S., and the EU - have refused to engage in talks with Hamas, Russia has insisted that all Palestinian factions must be involved in the peace process.

"We should maintain contact with Hamas as with any party in a crisis situation," Sergei Lavrov told journalists in Beijing on his way back from an ASEAN forum in Manila.

Lavrov said it was a mistake that a number of countries, such as the United States and Israel, had not acknowledged the Hamas-led government after the Islamists won parliamentary elections in January 2006, and highlighted the danger of permanently dividing the Palestinian territories.

He said Palestinian unity was impossible without contacts between Fatah and Hamas being restored.
sections: Politics, World News