Middle East:A group of MEPs met Palestinian prime minister Ismail Haniyeh yesterday, sidestepping the EU's official policy of shunning senior Hamas officials.
The European Parliament delegation visited Gaza on a four-day mission to the Palestinian territories, which also included trips to Ramallah, Hebron and Jerusalem.
Mr Haniyeh hailed the visit as a softening of the year-long boycott of the Hamas government by the EU and the US.
"There are steady and confident steps towards lifting the siege," Mr Haniyeh said after a meeting with 10 MEPs, including Labour's Proinsias De Rossa.
However, an EU spokeswoman said that the union's policy of shunning Hamas remained unchanged.
"The parliament is not the official representative of the European Union in matters of foreign policy," she said.
Mr De Rossa strongly criticised the continuing embargo by the EU and US on direct aid to the recently-formed unity government, which includes members of Hamas and of Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas's secular Fatah faction.
"It is time to lift the embargo on direct assistance, which forces 79 per cent of people below the poverty line and children to walk around without shoes . . . There is a real feeling of hopelessness here," he said.
Mr De Rossa criticised the Government for not pushing the EU council of ministers to break with the US-inspired blockade of Palestine.
Last week, European development aid commissioner Louis Michel said that EU aid would continue to bypass the Palestinian government until it recognised Israel, renounced violence and abided by interim peace deals, as demanded by the quartet of Middle East peace mediators and by Israel.
However, cracks are emerging within Europe on the best approach to take to the unity government.
Last month, Norway's deputy foreign minister met Mr Haniyeh in Gaza, and Italy's foreign minister, Massimo d'Alema, telephoned him in a show of support.
A spokesman for Israel's foreign ministry yesterday described the meeting between Mr Haniyeh and the MEPs as a "very negative occurrence".
"Giving recognition and legitimacy to an unreformed Hamas will not help peace," he said.