Carter, Condi in diplomatic dustup

Former President Jimmy Carter on Wednesday continued to insist that the Bush administration never warned him against meeting with leaders of Hamas during a recent trip to the Middle East.

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said Tuesday that the State Department told the former president "that we did not think meeting with Hamas was going to help" further a political settlement between Israel and the Palestinians. The Palestinian faction is regarded as a terror group by the U.S., Israel and the European Union.

In a statement issued by the Carter Center on Wednesday, the former president said he never got that message.

"President Carter has the greatest respect for Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and believes her to be a truthful person," the statement said. "However, perhaps inadvertently, she is continuing to make a statement that is not true."

"No one in the State Department or any other department of the U.S. government ever asked him to refrain from his recent visit to the Middle East or even suggested that he not meet with Syrian President Assad or leaders of Hamas."

In Washington, the State Department again rejected Carter's claim that he had not been advised against meeting with Hamas officials, referring to comments from Rice and other top officials.

"We stand by those statements," spokesman Sean McCormack said. "We stand by them as statements of fact, we have nothing more to add.

Carter had said earlier this week in a interview with NPR that he never received a warning from the State Department when he discussed the trip with officials there.

Carter said top Hamas leaders told him during seven hours of talks in Damascus over the weekend that they are willing to live next to Israel. However, a top Hamas official said the group would never outright recognize the Jewish state.

Rice said U.S. policy remains that it will deal only with the elected Palestinian president, Mahmoud Abbas, and his West Bank-based government as it tried to help Israel and the Palestinians broker terms for an independent Palestinian state.

Rice said she that Carter's visit could confuse the message that the U.S. will not deal with Hamas.

Click here for more GPB News coverage of Carter's Mideast visit.

(The Associated Press)