U.S. opens door to Hamas with Egypt mediation

By Sue Pleming - Analysis

BRUSSELS (Reuters) - Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice has faced pressure for months to engage Hamas and this week she gave Egypt the nod to negotiate with them to end violence in Gaza.

Analysts see this as a first sign the Bush administration could be tweaking its approach on Hamas, from total isolation to encouraging allies such as Egypt to engage with the Islamist group if it means saving U.S.-sponsored peace talks.

Egypt began talks on Thursday with leaders of Hamas and Islamic Jihad from the Gaza Strip, part of a U.S.-backed push for a truce between the groups and Israel to stop violence in Hamas-run Gaza that derailed Palestinian statehood talks.

A Palestinian gunman shot dead eight people at a Jewish religious school in Jerusalem on Thursday, exacerbating tensions. There was no claim of responsibility for the attack which was greeted with celebrations in Gaza. Israel said the attack would not derail the peace talks.

During a trip to the West Bank and Gaza this week, Rice was loathe to officially call for a ceasefire or a truce, preferring instead to refer to a need for "calm" so that talks could get back on track.

But on Thursday she made clear Washington supported Egypt's mission to get a truce, an indication that Cairo's role as mediator was acceptable if it could salvage talks launched in Annapolis, Maryland last November.

"I talked with the Egyptians and we fully expect the Egyptians to carry out the efforts that they said they would carry out to try to bring calm to the region, to try to improve the situation in Gaza," Rice said at a news conference in Brussels, where she attended a NATO ministers meeting.

"As you know Egypt is a good ally in the effort to help the Annapolis solution," she added.