Jordan's King Abdullah today urged Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni during a meeting in Washington to face the reality of Hamas's win in the Palestinian election and wait to see what policies it adopted in government before rejecting it.
But Mr Livni responded that the Jewish state would not deal with the group, which has vowed to destroy Israel, unless it met demands from the United States and other major western powers to change, Israeli Embassy spokesman David Siegel said.
"It is important not to disregard the new government before reviewing its agenda first," Abdullah told the Israeli minister, according to a Jordanian embassy statement.
Mr Livni said Hamas should first disarm, recognize Israel, renounce violence and accept Israeli-Palestinian accords, which are demands the United States, European Union, Russia and the United Nations have set Hamas.
"These conditions are not an opening position of negotiations, they are nonnegotiable, and something Israel will not be flexible about," Mr Siegel said in a telephone interview, referring to Livni's message to Abdullah.
Hamas, which said today it expected to head a new Palestinian government, has rejected the demands. Some Muslim leaders predict the group, which has carried out dozens of suicide bombings in Israel, will soften its stand once in power.
King Abdullah and Mr Livni were in Washington for separate talks with the Bush administration. Their positions highlighted the gulf over how to deal with the group between Israel and its main backer, the United States, on one side, and Arab states on the other.
King Abdullah, an Arab moderate with good ties with the White House, is a key player in Middle East peace efforts. Jordan, in 1994, became the second Arab country after Egypt to sign a peace treaty with Israel.