New Palestinian Govt. wishes good relations with Israel: "The new Hamas-led Palestinian government has told the UN it wants to live in 'freedom and independence side by side with our neighbours'. The message came in the first official letter from new Palestinian Foreign Minister Mahmoud Zahar to United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan.

...

Hamas has consistently refused to recognise Israel's right to exist. Mr Zahar said Israel's policies would diminish hopes for the achievement of peace based on a two-state solution.

The road map for peace, drawn up by the US, the UN, the EU and Russia, collectively known as the Quartet, refers to a two-state solution meaning an Israeli and a Palestinian state existing side by side in peace. 

The letter from the new Palestinian foreign minister to the UN secretary general was the first contact between the two since the new Hamas cabinet was sworn in. The minister, Mr Zahar, wrote that he hoped to work with the international community to enable Palestinians to attain what he termed 'their rights to a fully independent state'."

(Via International Reporter.)