By Xinhua
Lisbon : U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice publicly backed Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas, describing him as "an excellent partner" at a Thursday press conference.
Speaking after a meeting with Luis Amado, Portugal's foreign minister and president of the European Union council of ministers, Rice said that Hamas had excluded itself and that by contrast, "Abbas is the Palestinian people's elected president and president of the Palestine Liberation Organization, the negotiating authority in Palestine."
Hamas excluded itself when it broke international rules linked to the two-state solution, including renouncing violence, accepting international agreements and recognizing Israel's right to exist, according to Rice.
"I do not have the conditions necessary for a relationship with Hamas," Amado said, adding that the Council of Europe had backed Abbas and the Palestinian Authority in June.
Amado said that during their meeting, during Rice's first visit to Portugal, they had discussed Kosovo, the Middle East, the European Union-Africa Summit, Afghanistan, and the problems in the Sudanese region of Darfur.
Rice will meet Portugal's President Anibal Cavacao Silva and Prime Minister Jose Socrates later on Thursday. Portugal currently has the rotating EU presidency.
Rice is in Lisbon for a meeting with the Quartet for peace in the Middle East: the European Union, the United Nations, the United States and Russia.
Rice said that U.S. President George W. Bush backs independence for Kosovo, formerly part of Serbia but administered by the United Nations since 1999.
She said the future state of Kosovo should be swiftly decided in line with the plan presented by the UN special envoy to the area, Finnish President Martti Ahtisaari.
She said she was sure that Serbia and Kosovo would soon be free and strong states, and members of the European and Atlantic structure.