(Adds Hamas, Carter arrivals in Egypt, previous GAZA)
CAIRO, April 16 (Reuters) - Senior Hamas officials arrived in Egypt on Wednesday for a meeting with former U.S. President Jimmy Carter, who has been shunned by Israeli leaders over his contacts with the Islamist group.
Hamas official Ayman Taha told Reuters in Gaza that Carter had asked for a meeting with leaders of the group because he "wanted to hear the Hamas vision regarding the situation, and we are interested in clarifying our position".
Hamas leaders Mahmoud al-Zahar and Saeed Seyam entered Egypt via the Rafah border crossing along with four other Hamas officials and headed by road to Cairo, witnesses said. They were escorted at the border by Egyptian security men.
Carter later arrived in Cairo for a two-day visit by plane from Israel as part of a Middle East trip, Egypt's state news agency said. It was not immediately clear when a meeting with Hamas might take place.
Carter's delegation in Israel declined to comment, and no one from his team in Cairo could be reached to confirm plans for a meet.
Speaking at a peace forum in Arab East Jerusalem, Carter said that to have Hamas "completely excluded even from conversations or consultations, I think, is counterproductive". He did not say who he planned to meet in Egypt.
Carter had wanted to visit the Gaza Strip, which is governed by Hamas, but Israel rejected his request. All border crossings between Israel and Gaza are controlled by the Jewish state.
Hamas, which took control of the Gaza Strip by force in June from Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas's Fatah faction, has rejected Western demands to recognise Israel, renounce violence and accept existing Israeli-Palestinian interim peace deals.
ISRAELI DISPLEASURE
Carter has angered the Israeli government with plans to meet Hamas's top leader, Khaled Meshaal, in Syria, and by describing Israeli policy in the occupied Palestinian territories as "a system of apartheid" in a 2006 book.
Carter, a broker of Israel's 1979 peace treaty with Egypt, met Israel's ceremonial president Shimon Peres on Sunday but was shunned by Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and other policymakers.
Carter stressed he was not acting during his current regional visit as negotiator or mediator but that he hoped, "just as a communicator", to relay to leaders of the United States what Hamas and Syria have to say.
On Tuesday, in the occupied West Bank, Carter met Naser al-Shaer, who served as deputy prime minister in the Hamas-led government that the United States and other Western powers boycotted.
Shaer said he and Carter had discussed efforts to broker an unofficial truce between Israel and Palestinian militants in the Gaza Strip.
He said Carter had also voiced a desire to help in trying to end the enmity between Hamas and Fatah.
Israel and Washington have sought to isolate Hamas and bolster Abbas, who has entered U.S.-backed peace talks with Olmert.
Like Israel, the Bush administration opposes Carter's planned meeting with Meshaal. (Additional reporting by Brenda Gazzar in Jerusalem and Yusri Mohamed in Ismailia, Egypt; Writing by Jeffrey Heller in Jerusalem; Editing by Sami Aboudi)
