A senior official of the Palestinian militant organisation Hamas says the group will stop attacks on Israelis if it has guarantees of a gradual Israeli withdrawal from Palestinian territory.
Ismail Abu Shanab, in an interview with ABC's "Nightline" program on Tuesday, said the United States should give the Palestinians assurances about the outcome of the "road map" process that President George W Bush is promoting.
Asked if Hamas would stop attacks during negotiations between Israelis and Palestinians, he said: "Definitely yes ... We are ready to offer it at any time if there is a guarantee that those preliminary steps will be taken as part of a full or wide-scale withdrawal, and not the final steps.
"We want the United States to guarantee all of these things, an Israeli withdrawal, even if it is step by step."
Bush met Arab leaders in the Egyptian resort of Sharm el-Sheikh on Tuesday as part of an attempt to break the long deadlock between Israelis and Palestinians.
His attempt is based on a peace plan which proposes a Palestinian state as early as 2005 but does not fix the borders of the state or decide the fate of Arab East Jerusalem.
Abu Shanab said that although Hamas rejected the "road map" plan as a whole, the organisation would welcome U.S. assurances that the process really would end in a Palestinian state.
"The road map has a chance to succeed if the Americans block Israeli efforts to destroy it," he added.
The new Palestinian prime minister, Mahmoud Abbas, who attended the Sharm el-Sheikh summit, has been trying to persuade Hamas and other militant groups to call off attacks on Israelis so that Israel makes parallel gestures.
Abbas, in a separate ABC interview, expressed confidence that he could secure a ceasefire by Hamas and other militant Palestinian groups. "I believe that we can reach a deal with them to stop all military operations both in Israel and the West Bank," he said.
Abu Shanab said Hamas had offered Israel a truce many times but Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon had rejected the offers. It had asked Abbas if he had any guarantees of an Israeli response this time and Abbas said he did not, he said.
"So we will continue our discussions (with Abbas) to come out with something that strengthens internal unity among Palestinians, to give a chance to all peace efforts and reveal all the tricks Sharon is playing," he added.