NEW YORK, Sept 17: Prime Minister Ariel Sharon has threatened to withhold Israeli cooperation if Hamas takes part in Palestinian legislative elections due in January, The New York Times reported on Saturday.

“We will make every effort not to help them,” the newspaper quoted Sharon as telling journalists in New York. “I don’t think they can have elections without our help.”

Mr Sharon said Israel could choose to leave roadblocks in place in the West Bank, making it difficult for voters to reach polling stations, as well as imposing other obstacles to the holding of the elections in annexed east Jerusalem.

The Israeli leader similar remarks on Wednesday following talks with US President George Bush here on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly.

“I said in the clearest way possible that we completely oppose Hamas’ participation in the elections as long as they haven’t given up their weapons,” he told reporters.

“In Gaza, we can no longer influence Hamas’ participation ... but in other places, we won’t cooperate with anything,” he said, without detailing how Israel could hinder the vote.

He also said the radical movement, which has been behind most of the suicide bombings in the last five years of violence, needed to change its charter which calls for the destruction of Israel.

Hamas has said it plans to take part for the first time in January’s legislative elections in which it is expected to make a strong showing after sweeping a string of town halls in the Gaza Strip in municipal elections earlier this year.

The Palestinian leadership reacted angrily to Sharon’s threat.

“The Palestinian election is an internal Palestinian issue,” said Palestinian Authority spokesman Nabil Abu Rudeina.

“All Palestinians have a right to participate in this election and in our political life. I think this is another Israeli tactic to stop the progress in the peace process.”

One Israeli official travelling with Sharon said aides feared Hamas would “get 40 percent of the vote, and that will set us back 10 years,” the paper said.

Sharon said he had repeatedly informed the Palestinian leadership about Israel’s strong opposition to Hamas’s participation and was now planning to act on those concerns, the paper added.

Washington appeared reluctant to get involved in the dispute, with State Department spokesman Sean McCormack saying the issue needed to be resolved by the Palestinians.

“Palestinian people will need to resolve the fundamental contradiction of groups wanting to keep one foot in the political process and one foot in the camp of terror,” he said.

However, he stressed that under terms of the US-backed peace roadmap, which aims at ending the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, the Palestinian Authority was obliged “to dismantle terrorist networks”.

But he said the US administration would work with both sides “to bridge any differences concerning the upcoming Palestinian parliamentary elections”.—AFP