Foreign Minister Maxime Verhagen says there will be no negotiating with the radical Islamist Hamas movement.

The foreign minister's comments came during talks in the Lower House of parliament on the Middle East situation. Minister Verhagen emphasised that Hamas is a terrorist organisation and talks with the Islamist group were an impossibility until they had renounced violence, recognized Israel's right to exist and pledged to uphold previous treaties and agreements. A majority of MPs support the Foreign Minister's stance.
 

Earlier, the Labour Party, a member of the tri-party governing coalition, and the opposition Socialists and the Green Left called on the government to open talks with Hamas.
 

Minister Verhagen held talks on Wednesday with Israel's right-wing nationalist Foreign Minister, Avigdor Lieberman. Mr Verhagen urged his counterpart to stop settlement building in the occupied West Bank.