The United States will ask the European Union to outlaw the political wing of the Palestinian militant movement Hamas at a summit meeting in Washington today, a U.S. official says.
The United States has listed Hamas as a whole as a "foreign terrorist organisation" for many years but the European Union continues to distinguish between its military activities and its political and social role in the Palestinian territories.
US President George W. Bush will have talks in Washington today with Mr Romano Prodi, president of the executive European Commission, and Greek Prime Minister Costas Simitis, whose country holds the rotating EU presidency.
Timemagazine said this week that the United States had complained that Paris was turning a blind eye to fund-raising in France by front organisations for Hamas. But French embassy spokeswoman Natalie Loiseau said the United States had not sent any formal request to France.
Mr Loiseau said France tries to stop all fund-raising for "terrorist" groups and monitors closely money transfers to social institutions to ensure the money is properly spent.
A senior US official, briefing reporters on Monday on the summit, said the United States hoped the European Union would take a tougher line on Hamas.
The US position is that the Palestinian Authority of Prime Minister Mahmoud Abbas should dismantle the infrastructure of Hamas but as a transitional step it has indicated it would settle for a truce by Hamas.
Mr Abbas has been trying to persuade Hamas and other militant groups to call off attacks on Israelis so that work can start on a peace plan backed by the United States.
One US official, who asked not to be named, said the US embassy in Paris had tried to discourage confrontation on the Hamas dispute but the Bush administration insisted that it would not compromise on what it calls terrorists.
The United States has also been pressing European governments to adopt its policy of ostracising Palestinian President Yasser Arafat but US officials said they could not be sure that the subject would come up today.