Report: Hamas offered Bush talks in 2006

JERUSALEM, Nov. 14 (UPI) -- Palestinian Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh offered U.S. President George W. Bush an opening to the Hamas government in 2006, Haaretz reported Friday.

Haniyeh made his offer through Jerome Segal, a University of Maryland professor who had been involved in the peace process for years, the newspaper said. The two men met in Gaza in June 2006, three months after Hamas won a parliamentary majority in the Palestinian Authority.

As the meeting came to an end, Haniyeh dictated a message for the president. He and his translator signed the communication written in Segal's notebook.

Haniyeh reminded Bush that his party's electoral victory, which triggered boycotts by the United States and many of its allies, was a democratic one.

"We are so concerned about stability and security in the area that we don't mind having a Palestinian state in the 1967 borders and offering a truce for many years," he said. "We are not warmongers, we are peace makers and we call on the American government to have direct negotiations with the elected government."

Since then, the authority has split into the West Bank, controlled by the Fatah party under President Mahmoud Abbas, and Gaza, controlled by Hamas.