The European Union should establish contact with Hamas, the proscribed Islamist group, the holder of the EU's presidency has proposed.

Errki Tuomioja, Finnish foreign minister, told FT Deutschland, the Financial Times' sister paper, that the EU would have to make an important shift in policy and be prepared to enter discussions with all "relevant" parties if it were to revive the stricken Middle East peace process.

"Hamas is not the same party it was before the elections," he said, referring to what he said were the group's encouraging but insufficient steps to moderate its stance after it won control of the Palestinian Authority this year.

"We have to be able to talk to anyone who is relevant," he added. "There are many ways of having contact . . . nobody will start with press conferences and photo opportunities."...

...Hamas remains on the EU's official list of proscribed terrorist organisations and the 25-nation bloc has repeatedly declaredit would only establish political contacts with the Islamist group if it honoured past agreements, ceased violence and recognised Israel.

Any attempt to shift towards more normal relations with the group could infuriate Israel and the US and provide a dilemma for the EU's big powers - Germany, France and the UK.

The EU only added Hamas to its terrorist list after pressure from Washington and Tel Aviv and some top-level officials have held discreet consultations with people linked to the organisation in the past.

Mr Tuomioja has also already clashed with some of his colleagues - most notably at the start of August when a Finnish draft declaration calling for an immediate ceasefire in Lebanon and criticising Israel was watered down by other EU ministers.

He subsequently complained in a weblog that "for a long time it has been known that, within an hour after being distributed to the member states, all EU documents have already reached Tel Aviv, and probably Washington and Moscow"...