RAFAH, Egypt, 17 April 2008 — A Hamas delegation crossed into Egypt from Gaza yesterday for talks with Jimmy Carter after Israel barred the former US president from visiting the Palestinian territory.

The delegation, which includes leaders Mahmoud Zahar and Said Siyam and four others, reached Cairo by car.

Carter and his wife Rosalynn flew to Cairo from Tel Aviv in a private jet, an airport official said.

Hamas leader Zahar hailed the prospective meeting with Carter, although Carter Center officials would neither confirm nor deny plans for the encounter. “President Carter can break all the Israeli restraints that they want to place between him and Hamas, and so that we and our brothers in Damascus are determined to meet with him,” Zahar told reporters at the Rafah border crossing.

The former president is expected to meet exiled Hamas political chief Khaled Meshaal in Damascus on Friday despite strong opposition from Israel and the US administration.

Carter “affirmed the legitimacy of Hamas and that it is a national liberation movement despite the fact that he did not say so officially,” Zahar added.

Zahar and Siyam are considered hard-line Hamas leaders who planned the takeover of Gaza from forces loyal to moderate Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas in June.

The delegation is also to meet Omar Suleiman, Egypt’s intelligence chief, to discuss a possible cease-fire with Israel, reopening the Rafah crossing, and the fate of an Israeli soldier captured by Hamas in 2006.

Carter, winner of the 2002 Nobel Peace prize, on Sunday began a nine-day tour of the region to promote the Middle East peace process.

Israeli political leaders snubbed him over his plans to talk with Hamas, considered a terrorist organization by the Jewish state as well as by the United States and European Union.

Carter said Israel denied him permission to travel to the Gaza Strip. Israel sealed its borders with Gaza after Hamas took control of the territory.

Carter, who insists he is not acting as a mediator, has been urging talks with Hamas and Syria, saying a Middle East peace accord cannot be reached without them.

Washington has said the former president is acting in a personal capacity.