U.S. Had Secret Hamas Contacts

WASHINGTON — The State Department acknowledged Tuesday that U.S. diplomats have met secretly with representatives of Hamas, the Muslim fundamentalist organization accused of staging terrorist attacks in Israel to derail the Middle East peace process.

Department spokesman Richard Boucher said the contacts were broken off late last month because of “the current situation,” apparently a reference to the fierce Hamas opposition to peace negotiations between Israel and the Palestinian residents of the occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip.

Boucher said the contacts--most of which took place in Jordan--were part of U.S. efforts to gather information about Islamic political groups.

The situation is awkward for the U.S. government, which has long refused any official contact with the Palestine Liberation Organization because of its history of terrorism against Israel. In recent years, however, the PLO’s record has been considerably less bloody than that of Hamas.