JERUSALEM - Former US president Jimmy Carter said on Monday the Islamist Hamas movement told him it would recognise Israel's right to live in peace if a deal is reached and approved by a Palestinian vote.

Carter made the comments following two meetings in Damascus with exiled Hamas chief Khaled Meshaal that angered Israel and the United States, which consider the movement a terror group despite its victory in 2006 elections.

"They said that they would accept a Palestinian state within the 1967 borders if approved by Palestinians and that they would accept the right of Israel to live as a neighbour, next door, in peace," Carter told the Israeli Council on Foreign Relations think-tank.

Hamas would agree to such a peace deal, yet to be negotiated, provided it is "submitted to Palestinians for their overall approval even though Hamas might disagree with some terms of the agreement," Carter said in Jerusalem.

It was unclear whether Hamas would require the referendum to include Palestinian refugees living outside the West Bank and Gaza but Carter said the group would also accept an agreement negotiated by a unity government made up of Hamas and the Fatah movement of moderate Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas.

"The alternative that we included was if there can be another free election to form a government that involves Hamas and Fatah, that government could approve the peace agreement," Carter told reporters after the conference.

But Carter stressed no progress had been made in US-sponsored peace talks since they were restarted in November, with Palestinians increasingly angry over the continued expansion of Jewish settlements in the occupied West Bank.

His comments, and particularly his meetings with Hamas, drew sharp criticism from Israel.

"Former US president Jimmy Carter is detached from reality, on the one hand because his efforts are unilateral -- he only talks to one side -- on the other hand he doesn't take into account what happens on the ground," said Deputy Prime Minister Shaul Mofaz.

"He talks to Khaled Meshaal and tries to reach an agreement, while the murderous attacks continue against the state of Israel," Mofaz told public radio.

Carter insisted Hamas and Syria both had to be involved in any attempt to resolve the Middle East conflict.

"We believe the problem is not that I met with Hamas in Syria, the problem is that Israel and the United States refuse to meet these people," the 2002 Nobel Peace Prize laureate said.

Carter said Hamas rejected his proposal for a unilateral, 30-day ceasefire, saying "they couldn't trust Israel to follow up by lessening attacks on Gaza and in the West Bank."

Speaking to reporters after the conference, Carter said he was "not in any role to get that reciprocal agreement because I can't talk to Israeli officials."

Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and other Israeli leaders have refused to meet with Carter.

"So I told them (Hamas) don't wait for reciprocation, just do it unilaterally. This will bring a lot of credit to you around the world for doing a humane thing. They turned me down."

Hamas seized control of the Gaza Strip in June after ousting forces loyal to Abbas. Since then Israel has carried out near-daily raids on the coastal strip as Palestinian militants have launched rockets at southern Israel.

Carter also said Hamas had agreed to allow Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit, captured in a deadly cross-border raid from Gaza in June 2006, to write a letter to his parents.

The former US president wrapped up his nine-day trip to the Middle East, which also took him to the West Bank, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Syria and Jordan.

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04/21/2008 11:59 GMT