France's Kouchner hopes for Mideast peace progress

RAMALLAH, West Bank (Reuters) - French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner said on Thursday he hoped a "positive atmosphere" in the Middle East since a peace deal in Lebanon could help foster progress between Israel and the Palestinians.

Kouchner said after talks with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas's chief negotiator Ahmed Qurie in the West Bank city of Ramallah that not enough progress had been made since Israel and the Palestinians launched peace talks in November.

But Kouchner, who earlier had met Israeli political leaders, was hopeful a political agreement in Lebanon this week that ended that country's worst crisis since a 1975-1990 civil war, and hopes for a truce between Israel and Palestinian militants in Gaza, could provide momentum for the talks.

"There is this good atmosphere ... in Lebanon, as well as with Syria and also in Gaza," Kouchner said, adding that he believed he had seen goodwill among Israeli and Palestinian negotiators.

Noting that he expected to return to the region in a few weeks, he said: "I hope ... I'll hear good news."

U.S. President George W. Bush is pushing the two sides to secure an agreement to create a Palestinian state alongside Israel by the time he leaves office early next year, but so far the talks have made little visible progress.

At the same time, Egypt is trying to broker a truce between Israel and Palestinian militants in the Gaza Strip, which is run by Hamas Islamists who oppose Abbas's peace drive with Israel. Cairo's efforts have so far been unsuccessful.

Militants regularly fire rockets into Israel from Gaza. Israel frequently launches raids into the territory it says are aimed at stopping the attacks.

Kouchner described contacts France had made with Hamas, which he confirmed earlier this week, as "very superficial." He on Monday confirmed a newspaper report that a retired ambassador met senior Hamas officials about a month ago, drawing criticism from Washington, which is trying to isolate the Islamists.

Later, after talks with Abbas himself, Kouchner said: "There was one contact and it's over now. It was not a political negotiation."