The exiled political leader of Hamas said today that the organisation would be willing to strike a long-term truce with Israel - but only if the Israelis agreed to return to their 1967 borders.

The statement from the Damascus-based Khaled Mashal came a day after Ehud Olmert, the acting Israeli Prime Minister, spelt out for the first time his plans for further withdrawals from occupied Palestinian territories, including large areas of the West Bank.

In a BBC interview, Mr Mashal restated the Hamas view, first articulated by Sheikh Ahmed Yassin, the militant group's former leader who was killed by an Israeli airstrike, that the organisation would be willing to agree a long-term truce with Israel if it pulled back to its borders from before the Six Day War of 1967.

But he said that Hamas could not renounce violence now, even though it is set to form the next Palestinian government after its success in last month's elections, since that was a crucial weapon in its resistance to Israeli occupation.

"When Israel says that it will recognise Palestinian rights, and will withdraw from the West Bank and East Jerusalem, and grant the right of return, stop settlements and recognise the rights of the Palestinians to self-determination, then Hamas will be ready to take a serious step," Mr Mashal said.

"If Israel withdrew to the 1967 borders and recognised the rights of Palestinian people, with the right of those in the diaspor to return to their land and to East Jerusalem, and to dismantle settlements, Hamas can then state its position and possibly give a long-term truce with Jerusalem, as Ahmed Yassin said.

"But not now. Only after Israel recognised the rights of the Palestinians and showed and confirmed its willingness to withdraw to the 1967 borders."

Mr Mashal, a former physics teacher who has emerged as Hamas's main leader since Sheikh Yassin was killed in a targeted assassination by Israel in March 2004, said that the truce would be "long-term but limited" until the international community was able to find a long-term solution to ensure the right of return for Palestinians driven from the land since 1948.

Yesterday, however, Israel's acting Prime Minister stressed that Israel intends to keep three key settlement blocs in the West Bank, and to retain control of the Jordan Valley as it moves toward establishing its final borders.

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