UNITED NATIONS, April 12: The United Nations on Tuesday announced a restrictive policy on dealing with the Hamas-led Palestinian government, saying political contacts would now be decided on a case-by-case basis.

“Working contacts with the new Palestinian government will continue,” UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric told reporters. “But political contacts will be dealt with as they arise on a case-by-case basis.”

The UN move coincided with an economic and diplomatic squeeze by the European Union and the United States to force Hamas to recognise Israel and abide by peace agreements signed by previous Palestinian governments.

Mr Dujarric, UN chief Kofi Annan’s spokesman, said the UN was making sure that humanitarian aid and services are delivered to the Palestinian people.

“Working contacts on humanitarian issues will go on,” he stressed.

But the Palestinian government lashed out at the UN move.

The new policy is ‘a bad decision that defies all logic, knowing that the United Nations is an international organisation which should not be using the same criteria followed by the United States and European Union’, said Palestinian spokesman Ghazi Hamad.

Mr Dujarric dodged a question on whether the new guidelines amounted to a downgrading of the world body’s contacts with the Palestinian government, but said the policy had been evolving since the party’s Jan 25 landslide election victory.

“There has been a lot of confusion among UN officials on the ground” about what kind of contacts they can have with the new Palestinian government, Mr Dujarric said.

Palestinian UN envoy Ryad Mansour said he was not aware of the new policy, but recalled Mr Annan’s earlier comments that the election outcome ‘should be respected’ and that ‘the Palestinian people should not be punished’.

Mr Dujarric said Kofi Annan, currently in the Netherlands, had been working the phone with the United States, the European Union and Russia to try to set up a Middle East Quartet meeting to work out a joint policy on Hamas.

Hamas, behind dozens of suicide bombings in the course of a five-year uprising, has rejected the roadmap peace plan drawn up by the Quartet, which targets a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

But last week Palestinian Foreign Minister Mahmud al Zahar sent a conciliatory letter to Mr Annan, stating that his new government was looking for peace and independence with its neighbours while not specifically mentioning Israel.

Russia said on Monday that Mr Annan had proposed that the Quartet meet in New York at the end of this month or the beginning of next month.

Mr Dujarric’s comments also came against a backdrop of escalating Israeli military pressure on the Palestinians. Ismail Haniya, prime minister of the new government, said the action aimed to bring the Palestinian people to their knees.

Sixteen Palestinians, including two children, have been killed since the weekend in air strikes and shelling, with the Israeli government vowing no let-up until Palestinian militants stop firing rockets across the border.

The Israeli cabinet has also reaffirmed a determination to sever all contacts between Israel and the Hamas-led Palestinian Authority.

In addition, Israel plans to boycott any foreign diplomat who chooses to meet Hamas officials.

The Jewish state — which, like the EU and Washington, regards Hamas as a terrorist organisation — has also stopped handing over customs duties that it traditionally collects on behalf of the Palestinian Authority, worth around 50 million dollars a month.

On Monday, EU foreign ministers formally backed plans for a temporary aid suspension to the Palestinian government while pledging their support for the Palestinian people.—AFP