MOSCOW, March 3, 2006 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) – A delegation of senior Hamas leaders arrived in Moscow Friday, March 3, in their first talks with officials in a major foreign power since the group's landslide electoral victory, blaming Israel for the current impasse in the Middle East peacemaking.

"The problem is not in Hamas's position or the Palestinian position," Agence France-Presse (AFP) quoted Khaled Meshaal, Hamas politburo leader, as telling reporters after arriving in Moscow under heavy security.

"Israel is the one which has frozen the roadmap and the US administration has abandoned the roadmap," he said, referring to an internationally-endorsed blueprint for peace envisaging a viable Palestinian state living in peace with Israel.

Meshaal said the unilateral Israeli steps like last year's withdrawal from Gaza under (Israeli Prime Minister Ariel) Sharon's disengagement plan were blamed for the deadlocked peace talks.

"The ball is in Israel's court. Israel should recognize Palestinian rights," he added.

Hamas has swept the Palestinian legislative elections, winning 74 of the 132-seat legislature, against 45 for Fatah.

Meshaal arrived in Moscow upon an invitation from Russian President Vladimir Putin, leading a five-men delegation for talks with Russian officials.

"We have come to the Russian capital at the invitation of President Vladimir Putin to discuss the situation in the Middle East, to hold consultations with Moscow without any preconditions," he said.

Hamas leader said he hoped to use the invitation as a springboard for dialogue with the international community.

"Cooperation with the international community is important for us and we regard our visit to Moscow, the capital of a great power, as the beginning of this type of contact."

The United States and the European Union have so far rejected any dialogue with the resistance group unless it disarms, "renounces violence" and recognizes Israel.

Meshaal told the London-based Al-Hayat February 27, that the resistance group was ready for dialogue with the United States and Europe but without any prior conditions.

Hamas's delegation's visit to Russia was his first trip to a member of the international "Quartet" that is mediating in the Middle East peace process since the group's landslide election win.

Meshaal said the resistance group had come to "listen" to Russia's position and explain its own stance.

He was due to hold talks later Friday with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, who has called on Hamas to recognize Israel, "renounce violence" and adhere to prior agreements between the Israelis and Palestinians.

The Russian invitation to Hamas to visit Moscow has caught members of the Quartet, which groups the United States, European Union, the United Nations and Russia, by surprise.

Russian officials have stressed that the invitation was designed to urge Hamas to align itself with the principles of the international powers trying to broker peace in the Middle East.

Israeli officials have described the Russian invitation to Hamas as a "knife in the back", although the Europeans have signaled the Moscow talks may prove to be useful in breaking the impasse caused by Hamas's election win.

The United States said Thursday, March 2, its strategy continued to be to isolate Hamas financially and try to make it "enormously difficult" for the group to govern.

David Welch, US assistant secretary of state for Near Eastern Affairs, told US lawmakers Washington was trying to persuade governments not to meet Hamas leaders.

"We urge them against contact because, in our view, isolation and pressure have to be the words of the moment," Welch said in Washington.

"The US strategy is to make their function as a government enormously difficult", he added.

During her recent Mideast trip, US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice failed to mobilize support for isolating the Hamas-led government and deny aid and support to the already cash-strapped Palestinian Authority.

Israel has frozen the monthly transfers of tax revenues it collects on behalf of the Palestinian Authority, worth around $50 million.

Former US president Jimmy Carter has cautioned the United States and Israel against punishing the Palestinian people for electing Hamas.