GAZA, Aug. 24 (Xinhua) -- A Hamas official on Monday denied reports that representatives of the Islamic movement participated in workshops in Europe along with Israelis.

    Ahmed Yousef, a former advisor to deposed prime minister Ismail Haneya, said that he and other Hamas officials have received invitations to participate in those seminars in Switzerland "but did not respond."

    He also explained that the invitations were addressed to "Palestinian and Arab persons on their individual capacity, not to political parties or factions."

    Reports said that Hamas and its bitter rival, president Mahmoud Abbas's Fatah movement, Israeli, European and Arab officials joined the workshops which were dedicated to discuss the future of Middle East peace.

    Though Yousef said he learnt that some 120 Arab and Jewish people attended the discussions, he insisted that "Hamas has not participated and the reports were aimed at harming the stances of the movement."

    The reports said that Hamas has tasked some of its representatives who are based outside the Palestinian territories to go to the meetings.

    The U.S. has been leading an international campaign to isolate Hamas since it won the Palestinian parliamentary elections in 2006because it refused to recognize Israel and renounce violence.

    In recent months, Hamas has maintained a unilateral ceasefire in the Gaza Strip, stopped all kinds of attacks against Israel and held a series of meetings with Western diplomats in a bid to break the isolation.