GAZA, CITY, November 9, 2005 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) – The Palestinian resistance group Hamas said Wednesday, November 9, it was prepared to consider talks with Israel after the January Palestinian legislative elections.

"Negotiations are not our intention, negotiation is a method," said senior Hamas leader Mahmmoud Al-Zahar in a rare interview with Israeli radio, reported Agence France-Presse (AFP) said.

"If the method is able to liberate our land, to liberate our people from Israeli jails, to reconstruct what was destroyed by the long-standing Israeli occupation, at that time we can discuss," added Zahar, speaking in English.

The remarks come just two months before Hamas runs for the parliamentary polls, only the second ever ballot of its kind in the occupied Palestinian territories.

Hamas is widely expected to make a strong showing in the legislative polls at the expense of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas' mainstream Fatah movement.

On Sunday, November 6, Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon repeated his oft-stated position that Israel could not facilitate the parliamentary elections so long as Hamas takes part.

Pundits have said that the Israeli military escalation in the Gaza Strip in September and October was aimed at provoking Hamas into attacking Israeli targets and eventually undermining its participation in the elections.

Zahar said any talks with Israel following the January polls depends on the other side.

"That depends on the other side, because the Israelis are not intending to make a negotiation. Let us wait and see. After the election, everything will be clear," Zahar said.

Zahar called on Israel to withdraw from the occupied West Bank and occupied Al-Quds (East Jerusalem) and "to give the Palestinians a chance to live as human beings".

In an interview with an Israeli newspaper in late October, Zahar said that while some Palestinians may be content with a state in Gaza, the West Bank and East Jerusalem, Hamas "regards these borders only as a stage in the struggle".

"Some Israelis think that when we speak about the West Bank and Gaza, it means we have given up on the historical war and that is not the case," he had said.

The Hamas official further flatly ruled out any question of the group's disarming, as demanded by Israel.

Palestinian resistance factions have been observing a de facto truce since Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas was elected in January, an agreement that was cemented at talks brokered by Egypt last March.

Responding to Zahar's remark's, Israeli officials said the comments were "an attempt aimed at smoothing the group's participation in the January polls."

"In my opinion, it is a quick fix to subdue the international pressure on it. They also want more support among the Palestinian people," Israeli Foreign Minister Silvan Shalom was quoted as saying by Reuters.

Amos Gilad, Defense Ministry policy chief for diplomatic negotiations, echoed a similar stance, according to the Israeli daily Haaretz.

"There is no concession here, there is no basis for recognizing Israel as a country with the right to exist. The ideology has not changed," Gilad said.

"Their strategic goals have not changed. The only thing that has changed at the moment is that they want to go to elections, and they are very interested in not being prevented from going to elections."

Hamas, which saw its popularity soaring during more than four years of the Al-Aqsa Intifada, entered electoral politics for the first time at the end of 2004.