LOD (Israel), April 14: Former US President Jimmy Carter said on Monday that Syria and the Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas must be involved in any future peace deal, but the White House said he was acting in a private capacity.

“I think it’s absolutely crucial that in a final dreamed-about and prayed-for peace agreement for this region that Hamas be involved and that Syria be involved,” he said at a conference near Israel’s Ben Gurion Airport.

Carter has drawn fire from US and Israeli officials over reports that he plans to meet exiled Hamas leader Khaled Meshaal in Damascus later this week.

“I’ll be meeting with all the factions of the Palestinians which is also controversial, I know,” Carter said.

In Washington the White House said Carter did not represent the United States in his Mideast tour.

The president believes that if Mr Carter wants to go, that he is doing so in his own private capacity, as a private citizen, he is not representing the United States,” spokeswoman Dana Perino said.

President George Bush “is not a supporter of having conversations with Hamas, and we have made that known,” she added.

Carter stressed he was on a fact-finding tour for the Carter Centre, but said he hoped his trip would have a positive influence on the Middle East peace process.

“My hope is, although I’m not in a negotiation or mediation role, that we can induce the Palestinians, all of them, to have a ceasefire, and move toward justice and peace,” he told an audience of a few hundred business people.—AFP