April 23, 2008	Wednesday	Rabi-us-Sani 16, 1429

KUWAIT CITY, April 22: US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice on Tuesday chided former US president Jimmy Carter for meeting Hamas leaders, saying officials had told him such talks would not help the peace process.

“We counselled president Carter against going to the region, in particular against having contact with Hamas,” Ms Rice told journalists on the sidelines of a conference about Iraq in Kuwait City.

“We wanted to make sure there would be no confusion and there would be no sense that Hamas was somehow party to peace talks,” Rice said.—AFP