Gaza City - The radical Palestinian Islamist group Hamas has claimed to have had contacts with advisors of US president-elect Barack Obama prior to the US elections, the Arabic daily al-Hayat reported Tuesday.

The report cited leading Hamas politician Ahmed Yussuf as saying that contacts between the group and Obama advisors took place via the internet as well as a meeting before the November 4 US elections in the Gaza Strip.

Hamas was requested to keep the contacts secret in order not to damage Obama's chances in the US elections.

According to Yussuf, Obama would take a different tack on the Middle East than his predecessor George W Bush.

It was not clear which Obama advisor or advisors Hamas representatives had met in Gaza. In May, US Middle East expert Robert Malley, a former Obama advisor, admitted to contacts with Hamas, but only in relation with work for a think tank.

A spokesman for the Obama campaign said that Malley however no longer played any formal role in the campaign and would play no such role in the future.

Another Obama Middle East advisor, former US negotiator Dennis Ross, immediately before the US vote told the Israeli daily Ha'aretz that Obama would not change his position toward a "non-state actor" such as Hamas until Hamas had recognized Israel, rejected terrorism and accepted previous Mideast agreements.

Over the weekend, the so-called Mideast Quartet - consisting of the United States, Russia, the European Union, and United Nations - called on the international community to support moderate Palestinian leadership and redouble its efforts against terrorism, incitement and violence.

Hamas is the strongest internal Palestinian rival to the Fatah organization of Palestinian Authority President Mahmud Abbas. After bloody clashes in June 2007, Hamas took over the Gaza Strip with its 1.5 million residents. The group has since then been largely under boycott by the West.

Hamas hopes that a Obama presidency in the US would end the Palestinian group's isolation. (dpa)