Former US president Jimmy Carter said today Hamas leaders told him they would accept a peace agreement negotiated by their rival, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, if Palestinians approved the deal in a vote.
Hamas will accept an agreement if the Palestinians support it in a free vote - Jimmy Carter
In a speech, Mr Carter said Hamas "said they would accept a Palestinian state on the 1967 borders if approved by Palestinians ... even though Hamas might disagree with some terms of the agreement".
"It means that Hamas will not undermine Abbas's efforts to negotiate an agreement and Hamas will accept an agreement if the Palestinians support it in a free vote," he said.
But Mr Carter said he was told by Hamas that a referendum on a peace deal must be preceded by reconciliation between the group and Mr Abbas's Fatah faction. Hamas seized the Gaza Strip from Fatah in fighting in June.
A Hamas official in the Gaza Strip also referred to a series of preconditions raised by the Islamist group for assenting to a deal with Israel. Sami Abu Zuhri said Palestinian refugees living in exile must be included in the voting - a condition that could complicate approval of a deal.
Mr Abu Zuhri also noted that Hamas, which refuses to recognise Israel, would regard any future Palestinian state in the occupied West Bank and the Gaza Strip, territories Israel captured in the 1967 Middle East war, as "transitional".
Unlike Mr Abbas, who sought a Palestinian state side-by-side with the Jewish state, Mr Abu Zuhri said Hamas's outstanding position not to recognise Israel's right to exist remained unchanged.
Mr Carter and Hamas leader Khaled Meshaal held talks in Damascus last week over how the group, shunned by Israel and the West, could be drawn into a peace plan and drop its opposition to Mr Abbas's negotiations with the Jewish state.
Nobel peace prize laureate Mr Carter said Hamas turned down his proposal for a 30-day unilateral ceasefire with Israel but Egypt would continue its efforts to mediate a truce.
Mr Carter, who helped negotiate a 1979 peace treaty between Israel and Egypt, said excluding Hamas "is just not working" and was stirring violence along Israel's border with the Gaza Strip.
His willingness to meet officials from Hamas has drawn criticism from Israel and the United States, which both regard it as a terrorist group.