WASHINGTON, March 3: The United States wants to isolate Hamas financially and politically to make it ‘enormously difficult’ for the radical Palestinian group to govern, the US envoy for the Middle East said on Thursday.

David Welch, the assistant secretary of state for Near Eastern Affairs, told US lawmakers Washington is trying to dissuade governments from meeting leaders of Hamas.

“We urge them against contact because in our view, isolation and pressure have to be the words of the moment,” Mr Welch said.

The US strategy is to ‘make their function as a government enormously Difficult’, Mr Welch said.

“If nevertheless they were to have such contacts ... we bring to their attention the Quartet statement,” he said.

The Quartet for Middle East peace — the United States, European Union, United Nations and Russia — has urged Hamas to abandon violence, recognise Israel and embrace the roadmap to peace.

That blueprint to peace envisions an independent Palestinian nation existing side by side with the Jewish state.

US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice failed during a Middle East trip last month to mobilise Arab states to isolate Hamas.

Saudi Arabia said it would continue its financial help to the Palestinian Authority, while Egypt said Hamas should be given time. —AFP