Damascus - A European parliamentary delegation on Saturday met with members of Hamas's political leadership-in-exile in Damascus to discuss ways to end the group's international isolation.

The six-member EU delegation, which includes lawmakers from Britain and Ireland, said that their meeting with Hamas politburo leader Khaled Meshaal in Damascus was intended to encourage more Europeans to recognise Hamas as a legitimate movement that was democratically elected by its people.

"We believe that we should start talking with Hamas, and the more the delay, the more the suffering," Irish EU parliamentarian Chris Andrew said following the group's meeting.

The European Union added Hamas to its list of terrorist organizations in 2003. Though Europe kept direct ties with the political party, it froze the group's assets in Europe.

Osama Hamdan, a senior Hamas leader based in Lebanon, said that Hamas has held personal meetings with European figures for more than two years, but that the meetings were kept private at the Europeans' request.

"The British chose to bring these meetings out from the shadows now, because they realized the failure of the policy of excluding Hamas," Hamdan said.

A British diplomat in Syria, speaking to Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa on condition of anonymity on Saturday, said the delegation had undertaken the visit in a private capacity, and that the visit had not been coordinated with the British government.

A delegation of Italian and Greek EU lawmakers is expected to arrive in Syria in the coming days. (dpa)