Palestinian FM in Austria for talks on Middle East

By JERUSALEM POST STAFF
The Palestinian foreign minister was wrapping up a brief visit to Austria on Wednesday, hoping to improve relations between the new Palestinian coalition government and the European Union and gain more financial aid and political backing. Ziad Abu Amr was to meet with his Austrian counterpart, Ursula Plassnik, and her office said the two also planned to discuss the Middle East peace process as well as the role of the militant group Hamas in the Palestinian coalition. "He told me that he always tells his friends in Hamas: 'If you want to play soccer, you can't start with 19 players or seven, but with 11,"' Plassnik said in an interview with the Wiener Zeitung newspaper. "There are rules of the game, and Hamas must change its positions accordingly," the paper quoted her as saying.