GAZA CITY, Jan 12: The Islamist Hamas movement which controls the Gaza Strip on Saturday dismissed US President George W. Bush’s vision of a Palestinian state.

“We reject Bush’s vision of a rump state,” dismissed Hamas prime minister Ismail Haniya told hundreds of Palestinian pilgrims at a ceremony to mark their return from Haj.

Bush called on Thursday for an end to the four-decade-old Israeli occupation of Palestinian territories and for the two sides to make the tough choices needed for a final peace deal.

The US president also called for new mechanisms “including compensation” to resolve the issue of Palestinian refugees, one of the thorniest of the Arab-Israeli conflict.

Haniya hit out at Bush’s suggestion that a peace agreement might exclude the refugees returning to the homes they fled in the 1948 Arab-Israeli war.

“We reject his denial of the right of return of refugees and his position on Jerusalem,” Haniya said.

“We do not accept that 11,000 (Palestinian) prisoners stay in Israeli jails and that (Jewish) settlements remain in Palestinian territory,” he added.

Haniya also called for an end to “security cooperation” between Israel and Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas, whose forces in the Gaza Strip Hamas defeated after a week of deadly clashes last June.

Another Hamas leader, Ahmad Bahar, accused Bush, Abbas and Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert of “conspiring against the Palestinian cause and the armed struggle”.

On Friday Hamas spokesman Ismail Radwan said the movement would not be bound by any agreement that Abbas and Olmert reached, adding that the sort of deal being talked about fell seriously short of Palestinian aspirations.—AFP