ARAB AFFAIRS - Jan 31 - Arabs Join In Pressuring Hamas Over Israel.

In a swirl of Arab diplomacy, Saudi Arabia and Jordan press the militant Palestinian organisation Hamas to moderate its stance on Israel and to entice the defeated Fatah party into a deal to share power. And there were growing indications that the diplomacy could lead to a meeting in Cairo, perhaps later this week, between the Palestinian Pres, Mahmoud Abbas of Fatah, and the political leader of Hamas Khaled Mashaal, who is based in Damascus. It would be the first meeting between the two men since July, when Abbas visited Syria. "A delegation from Hamas's leadership will start a regional tour to Islamic and Arab countries sometime soon", a Hamas official, Mohammad Nazzal, said Jan 31 night. He said the group would start in Egypt, then make stops in Saudi Arabia and Iran. He gave no date for the start of the mission. Egypt, meanwhile, sent its intelligence chief, Omar Suleiman, to Damascus, where he was thought to have met with Mashaal and members of what is considered the more hard-line Syrian-based arm of the group. Suleiman was hoping to learn the group's plans and to explore what role Egypt could play, said an Egyptian official who spoke on condition of anonymity. Suleiman has long been Egypt's point man for the Palestinian issue. Last year he played the leading role in a Cairo conference that produced a cease-fire by Hamas and other militant Palestinian groups. Hamas has stuck by the truce, though others - including Islamic Jihad - have carried out several attacks on Israeli targets. Hamas wants Egypt to help persuade Fatah to join a unity government, but it is facing resistance from Abbas's party and probably will face demands for concessions. Abbas flew to Cairo on Jan 31 night after a meeting in Amman with King Abdullah of Jordan earlier in the day. Abbas met with PM Ahmad Nazif of Egypt and FM Ahmad Aboul Gheit. Abbas said there was nothing to prevent him meeting Mashaal, "but it's not on my schedule now". In Damascus, another Hamas official, Osama Hamdan, said Mashaal would meet Abbas in Cairo in the near future but not during the Palestinian leader's Feb 1 visit. Abbas was to meet Pres Hosni Mubarak on Feb 1. The Israeli FM, Tzipi Livni, was also to meet with Mubarak. King Abdullah of Jordan said he told Abbas that all Palestinian factions must "understand the requirements of this period, deal with it logically and prove to the whole world that there is a Palestinian partner able to go forward to achieve peace". Hamas stunned Israel, its allies and much of the Arab world with its overwhelming victory in Palestinian parliamentary elections last week and is under intense pressure from the international community - the Arabs as well - to step back from its avowed platform of the destruction of Israel. Hamas has so far resisted the mounting pressure to disavow its calls for the destruction of Israel and renounce violence despite warnings of a cutoff of international aid for the Palestinians unless it does so as it forms a new government. FM Prince Saud Al Faisal of Saudi Arabia voiced optimism on Feb 31 that Hamas - which has opposed Arab-Israeli peace talks and carried out dozens of suicide bombings against Israelis - might assume a more moderate agenda. "I can't believe that they won't act responsibly as a government", Faisal said in Malaysia, where he was accompanying the Saudi king on a visit. "We have to wait and see, and we suggest that everybody wait and see. We need cool heads now, rather than reactions that close the door to a peaceful settlement". Arab states are eager to moderate Hamas and see it assume the government with policies that would avoid a cutoff of international aid to the Palestinians and avert a breakdown in the peace process with Israel. They also want to prevent the Hamas victory from bolstering Islamic movements in their own countries. Western powers have said they will not finance a Hamas-led Palestinian government unless it renounces violence and recognizes Israel. And Israel has said it will not deal with a government that includes Hamas, which it regards as a terrorist organisation.