CRAWFORD, Texas, June 6, 2005 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) - The Bush administration is showing signs of easing its hard-line stance on the Palestinian resistance movement Hamas in response to the group’s political clout and soaring popularity, EU diplomats and US officials have said.

“There is now a realization that they (Hamas) do have a role to play ... that if you can bring them into the political fold, then you'll be marginalizing the military elements of those groups,” a European diplomat told Reuters.

Though officials insist there is no change in Washington's refusal to distinguish - as Europe does - between Hamas's political and military operations, the administration may be moving in that direction, diplomats and experts said.

The policy shift also follows a behind-the-scene push by European allies, including Britain and France, for Washington to drop its call to dismantle Hamas altogether.

European officials have warned Washington that dismantling Hamas would be a “disaster” for Palestinians who benefit from the group's aid and relief network.

European diplomats said a strong election showing by Hamas and a ceasefire deal could prompt reconsideration of the EU's decision to put Hamas on its “terrorist” blacklist.

US officials and diplomats cast any policy shift as pragmatic. Hamas-funded social services are popular with many Palestinians, the group is winning local races and was expected to make a strong showing in newly postponed legislative polls.

American officials acknowledge that Hamas's electoral rise poses a dilemma in defining “terrorists”.

Hamas entered electoral politics for the first time at the end of last year, securing a landslide victory over Fatah in the first-ever Gaza Strip council elections in January.

Of the 118 seats on 10 councils, its candidates won over 77 seats or 65 percent against nearly 22 seats or 26 percent for Fatah.

Hamas also beat Fatah in four out of five major cities in the second stage of municipal polls last month before court rulings cancelled results in three main municipalities and ordered a run-off election.

US officials further said Washington may be open to contacts with Hamas politicians and left open the possibility of dealing with the group if it gave up weapons, in contrast to past calls for its total dismantlement.

While asserting that the US will not deal directly with Hamas, a senior Bush administration official said it may be willing to have contact with politicians “affiliated with the group.”

After a recent meeting with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas at the White House, President George Bush did not publicly repeat, as usual, demands for the Palestinian Authority to dismantle Palestinian resistance groups, chiefly Hamas.

Abbas's announcement that he is postponing July 17 legislative elections could buy time for Washington to settle on its Hamas policy, experts said.

It said that the US embassy in Israel usually sends a representative or a government journalist for the talks to take the pulse of Hamas.

The group has seen its popularity soaring among the grassroots.

Its popularity is not attributed to not only its staunch resistance and patriotic approach, but also its pivotal social and charity role manifested in building schools, hospitals, mosques and orphanages.

Hamas has recently changed its resistance tactics, targeting only Israeli occupation troops and posts within the territories occupied in 1967 to dismiss US accusations of being a “terrorist” organization.

Hamas now observes a truce with Israel following marathon talks with Abbas over earlier in the year.

A unilateral truce declared by Palestinian resistance factions in June 2003, collapsed after Israeli forces assassinated senior Hamas leader Ismail Abu Shanab.

One of the group's main declared goals is also to preserve the Palestinian unity and nip in the bud any attempt to spark a civil war despite several face-offs with the Palestinian Authority and the mainstream Fatah movement.

It basically locked horns with the PA over the Oslo Accords, which are seen by the resistance movement as a complete failure.

Hamas maintains that the 1993 agreements can no longer serve as a springboard because Israel has failed to comply with its terms and conditions.

Pundits believe that Hamas’s landmark decision to enter politics and the possibility of joining the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) could signal an end of Fatah's five-decade of political domination.