Mideast Peacemakers to Assess Strategy

World powers have largely abandoned hope that Hamas radicals will drop anti-Israel positions that have riven the Palestinian leadership and led to a cutoff of direct international aid. Now diplomats are looking for a new approach.

A year after Hamas' surprise victory in Palestinian parliamentary elections put renewed peace efforts with Israel in doubt, the United States was to host other would-be peacemakers for a strategy session Friday.

The gathering of diplomats from the U.S., United Nations, European Union and Russia follows months of mounting street violence

between Hamas and the rival Fatah Party. The political factions each control part of the Palestinian government, and each command militias or security forces like those that battled in the streets of the Gaza Strip on Thursday, killing six.

A goal of Friday's meeting at the State Department is to demonstrate tangible support for the secular Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas through increased money, training and other aid for his Fatah security forces.

The Bush administration has asked Congress for an additional $86 million for Abbas' forces, although the money would not go to buy weapons. European diplomats said their governments are considering a separate effort to train and equip Fatah, the party Abbas heads.

"What you have to do in a situation like this is go in and engage in consultations with your allies," White House spokesman Tony Snow said Thursday. "And I think there have been some discussions about what people would like to see, but I don't think it would be constructive to try to lay it out publicly at this juncture."

The group hosted by Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice is the sponsor of a dormant 2003 peace plan that would lead eventually to an independent Palestinian state alongside Israel. That goal, although popular among both Israelis and Palestinians, has seemed especially remote as the internal Palestinian dispute worsened this year.

Ahead of the meeting, there were signs that the United States may have difficulty holding the group to its hard line against Hamas.

A senior Russian diplomat called Tuesday for the lifting of the international blockade of the Hamas-led Palestinian government, the Interfax news agency reported. Deputy Foreign Minister Alexander Saltanov said Moscow would use the meeting of international mediators in Washington to press for the lifting of the financial sanctions.

Russia joined a strong statement from the group last year that laid out conditions for Hamas to receive international aid and political recognition. The Islamic radicals have refused to renounce violence or accept Israel's right to exist, and will not commit to commitments made by the previous secular Palestinian government.

A senior U.S. official, speaking on condition of anonymity to describe U.S. thinking ahead of the meeting, said diplomats have little hope that Hamas will meet those conditions and are looking for ways to break the impasse.