(Xinhua)
Updated: 2008-04-17 23:33

WASHINGTON - The White House said Thursday that the meeting between former US president Jimmy Carter and a Hamas delegation from the Gaza Strip was not "useful."

Former US President Jimmy Carter visits the grave of late Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat in the West Bank city of Ramallah April 15, 2008. [Agencies]

"We do not think that meeting was useful. As we can all see by the recent violence in Gaza, Hamas is a terrorist organization," US National Security Council spokesman Gordon Johndroe said.

Carter met a Hamas delegation from the Gaza Strip on Thursday, part of a series of talks with the Islamic militant group branded by the United States as a "terrorist organization."

The White House criticized on Monday the planned meeting between Carter and Hamas officials.

"The president believes that if president Carter wants to go, that he is doing so in his own private capacity, as a private citizen, he is not representing the United States," White House spokeswoman Dana Perino said.