Egypt best placed to talk to Hamas - Miliband

By Jonathan Wright

CAIRO (Reuters) - Foreign Secretary David Miliband said on Wednesday that talking to the Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas was "the right thing to do" but Egypt and other parties were best placed to do it.

In an interview with Reuters in Cairo, where Hamas and the rival Fatah group prepared on Wednesday for a national dialogue on a new Palestinian government, Miliband said Egypt was acting on behalf of the whole world in its dealings with Hamas.

Britain, along with the United States and the European Union, calls Hamas a terrorist organisation and refuses to have talks with the group, which won Palestinian elections in 2006 and has controlled Gaza since 2007.

Egypt, the only Arab state bordering the Gaza Strip, has taken the lead in trying to mediate a long-term truce between Hamas and Israel after the Israeli assault on the enclave which killed some 1,300 Palestinians in December and January.

It is also the host for a dialogue of Palestinian political groups formally opening in Cairo on Thursday.

Miliband said: "Egypt has been nominated ... to speak to Hamas on behalf of the Arab League but actually on behalf of the whole world. Others speak to Hamas. That's the right thing to do and I think we should let the Egyptians take this forward."

GEOGHAPHICAL PROXIMITY

Miliband said he saw no contradiction between supporting Egyptian mediation and refusing to follow suit in dealing directly with Hamas.