White House urges Carter not to meet Hamas leader

Washington: The White House has urged former president Jimmy Carter to cancel plans to meet with the leader of Hamas, the US State Department said.

Carter is to meet next week Hamas leader Khaled Meshaal who lives in exile in Syria. His spokeswoman neither confirmed nor denied whether the meeting would take place.

On Thursday, State Department spokesman Sean McCormack counselled Carter against talks with Hamas officials.

"US policy is that Hamas is a terrorist organization," McCormack said. "We don't believe it is in the interest of our policy or in the interest of peace to have such a meeting."