Damascus  - A group of British parliamentarians met with exiled Hamas political leader Khaled Meshaal in Damascus on Wednesday, Hamas said.

The Labour Party's Roger Godsiff led the nine-member British delegation in its meeting with Meshaal, Hamas said.

"The visit comes in the framework of European endeavours to open communication channels with Hamas, and to get a more profound

understanding of the (Palestinian) issue through direct contact with Hamas," Hamas said in a statement sent to reporters.

During the meeting, Meshaal said he appreciated the visit, but faulted western countries for failing to fulfill "their moral and humanitarian" obligations by placing political conditions on aid to the Gaza Strip following Israel's offensive there in December and January.

Donor countries gathered for a conference on aid to the Gaza Strip and the Palestinian economy pledged close to 5 billion dollars in aid to the Palestinians, but many stressed they would not allow Hamas to receive or disburse any of it.

According to Hamas' statement, Godsiff said that Israeli-Palestinian peace talks could not succeed without involving Hamas.

Wednesday meeting was the second between British parliamentarians and Hamas officials in a month. In March, British and Irish members in the European Parliament met with Hamas political leaders in Damascus, followed days later by a delegation of Greek and Italian members of Parliament.

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

Osama Hamdan, a senior Hamas leader based in Lebanon, said in an earlier interview with German Press Agency dpa that Hamas has held personal meetings with European politicians for more than two years, but that the meetings had been 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 at the time. (dpa)