(Adds Carter comments, paragraph 6)

By Mohammed Assadi

RAMALLAH, West Bank, April 15 (Reuters) - Former U.S. President Jimmy Carter, shunned by Israeli leaders over his plans to meet Hamas, said on Tuesday he sought permission to enter the Islamist-ruled Gaza Strip but was turned down.

Carter did not single out Israel by name for having turned down his request to visit Gaza, which Hamas seized in June after routing Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas's secular Fatah faction.

All of the border crossings between Israel and Gaza are controlled by the Jewish state. Egyptian forces are stationed at Gaza's southern border, which is largely closed.

"I haven't been able to get permission to go into Gaza. I would like to. I asked for permission. But I was turned down. But maybe we can find a way to circumvent that. I don't know yet," Carter said after meeting diplomats in the West Bank city of Ramallah.

The former U.S. leader has angered the Israeli government over plans to meet Hamas's top leader, Khaled Meshaal, in Syria, and for describing Israeli policy in the occupied Palestinian territories as "a system of apartheid" in a 2006 book.

Carter, who has stressed he was not acting as a negotiator or a mediator, said he hoped "just as a communicator" to relay to "the leaders of the United States" what Hamas and Syria have to say.

The Nobel Peace Prize winner met Israel's ceremonial president Shimon Peres but was shunned by Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and other top policymakers.

PROTECTION

Israel's secret service also declined to assist U.S. agents guarding Carter, American sources familiar with the matter said. An Israeli security source said the Shin Bet security service did not receive a request to provide him with protection.

Carter said on Tuesday he would use his meeting with Meshaal to "get him to agree to a peaceful resolution of differences, both with the Israelis... and also with Fatah".

"Since Syria and Hamas will have to be involved in the final peace agreement, they ought to be involved in the discussions leading up to ... peace," said Carter, who brokered Israel's first peace treaty with an Arab neighbour, Egypt, signed in 1979.

Israel and the United States have sought to isolate Hamas in the Gaza Strip and bolster Abbas, who holds sway in the occupied West Bank and has launched U.S.-backed peace talks with Olmert.

The Bush administration and Israel oppose Carter's planned meeting with Meshaal, whose Islamist group won Palestinian parliamentary elections in 2006 but was boycotted by the West for refusing to renounce violence and recognise Israel.

During his visit to Ramallah on Tuesday, Carter said he planned to meet Palestinian political leaders, including Naser al-Shaer, who served as deputy prime minister in the Hamas-led government formed after the 2006 election.

"I'm just trying to understand different opinions and communicate ... between people who won't communicate with each other," he said. "So I think that if he (Meshaal) does have anything constructive to say, he or the president of Syria..., then I will bring that to other people."

Hamas leaders have offered a long-term truce with Israel in return for a viable Palestinian state in the occupied West Bank and the Gaza Strip, but the group's 1988 founding charter calls for the destruction of the Jewish state. (Writing by Adam Entous; Editing by Richard Meares)

AlertNet news is provided by