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Gaza, June 19 (IANS) The Islamic Hamas movement has been holding meetings with foreign officials in a bid to get its name erased from the list of international terrorist organisations, a Hamas official said Wednesday.

The US, several European countries and Israel have classified the Hamas movement, which has ruled the Gaza Strip since June 2007, as a terrorist organisation.

A series of meetings with European officials have been held in Gaza and Cairo, Hamas deputy foreign minister Ghazi Hammad was quoted as saying by Xinhua.

“These meetings which included US officials close to the White House, were held away from the mass media and aimed at removing Hamas from the list of terrorist organisations,” Hammad said.

“There are no legal or political justifications for keeping Hamas movement in that list,” he said.