Hamas Islamists rejected US President George W. Bush's drive for peace in the Middle East and vowed to undermine Israeli-Palestinian negotiations by keeping up their fight against the Jewish state.

Bush is due to revive long-stalled Israeli-Palestinian peace talks at a White House summit after the two sides agreed to try and seal an accord on creating a Palestinian state by the end of next year.

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas wants a state in the West Bank and Gaza but Hamas Islamists, who violently seized control of Gaza in June, claim a right to all land that is now Israel and oppose Abbas's drive for peace with the Jewish state.

A Hamas official said a pledge by Abbas, whose secular Fatah faction holds sway in the larger West Bank, to rein in Palestinian militants was "criminal".

"The demand by Bush is rejected and resistance will continue by all means against the (Israeli) occupation," Sami Abu Zuhri told Reuters.

Israel considers Gaza an enemy and launches regular raid into the coastal territory to try to curb rockets fired into Israeli towns by Palestinians militants. Israeli missiles struck a Hamas security post in southern Gaza, killing two Hamas naval police officers, medics and the Islamist group said.

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