Italian Foreign Minister Massimo D'Alema said Hamas is a "significant and substantial" part of the Palestinian people, Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera reported Tuesday.

D'Alema expressed fears that isolating Islamic groups like Hezbollah and Hamas will push them towards international terror network al-Qaida.

"Hamas has carried out terror attacks, but it is also a ground roots movement," he said.

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"Not recognizing the government elected democratically is not exactly a lesson in democracy, and pushing such a group into the hands of al-Qaida is not in the international committee's interest."

The United States, the European Union and Israel regard Hamas, which came to power last year after it won Palestinian parliamentary elections, as a terrorist organization.

Hamas seized control of the Gaza Strip last month in a bloody confrontation with Palestinian Authority Mahmoud Abbas' Fatah movement, in a move that has effectively divided the Palestinians between the West Bank - governed by Fatah - and Gaza, which is ruled by Hamas.

Since the defeat of Fatah forces in Gaza, Israel, backed by the West, has been working to boost Abbas' standing in the West Bank and isolate Hamas.

During a meeting in Jerusalem on Monday with Abbas, Prime Minister Ehud Olmert warned him against renewing political cooperation with Hamas.

"Any renewed cooperation between Fatah and Hamas will be, from our point of view, a breakdown of the political process," Olmert said.

Abbas vowed not to resume any such cooperation, a political source said Monday.