Obama promises Israel ‘unshakeable’ commitment

Barack Obama on Wednesday vowed an "unshakeable" commitment to Israel if he is elected US president.

"I bring here an unshakeable commitment to Israel's security," Obama said with Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni by his side, on the latest leg of his Middle Eastern and European campaign swing.

Obama had flown by helicopter to Sderot after holding talks with Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas in Ramallah, and left his hosts reassured he would commit to Middle East peacemaking.

"I will not wait until a few years into my term or my second term if I am elected in order to get the process moving," Obama said. "I think we have a window right now that needs to be taken advantage of."

Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erakat told AFP that in his talks with Abbas, Obama said "if he wins the election in the United States he will be a full and positive partner in the peace process and will not lose a single moment in pursuing it."

The Illinois senator said he had not backed down from his comment that Al-Quds should not be divided, which he made before the US Jewish lobby last month, sparking anger among Palestinians.

"I have not changed my statement," Obama told reporters in Sderot after touring the home of a family in which a young boy lost a leg to a Hamas rocket fired from Gaza.

"I continue to say that Al-Quds will be the capital of Israel. I have said it before and will say it again ... but I've also said that it is a final status issue" that must be decided by negotiation.

Obama's original comment was seen by some observers as prejudging final status peace talks, and his campaign has since said that it was poorly worded.

The candidate also said he stood by Israel's refusal to negotiate with the Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas, which the United States and European Union consider a terror group and which controls the Gaza Strip.

"It is very hard to negotiate with a group that is not representative of a nation state, does not recognise your right to exist, has consistently used terror as a weapon and is deeply influenced by other countries," he said.

"I think the Hamas leadership will have to make a decision ... as to whether it is a serious political party seeking to represent the aspirations of the Palestinian people and as a consequence be willing to recognise Israel's right to exist and renounce violence as a tool to achieve its aims or whether it wants to continue to operate as a terrorist organisation." arlier, Obama called Israel a "miracle" as he courted Jewish voters back home.

US polls showed Obama has yet to clinch the normally solid Democratic bloc of American Jewish voters, and he took pains to portray himself as a staunch friend of Israel, just over three months before the US election.

Obama paid his respects to President Shimon Peres, and his role in Israel's history, before meeting Prime Minister Ehud Olmert.

"You have been deeply involved in this miracle that has blossomed and we are extraordinarily grateful not just as Americans but as world citizens for your outstanding service to your country," Obama told Peres.

Earlier, the Democratic senator toured Yad Vashem Holocaust memorial in Al-Quds to the six million Jews who perished under the Nazis.

He laid a wreath at the Hall of Remembrance, where ashes recovered from Nazi extermination chambers are interred.

Obama, who has already visited Kuwait, Afghanistan, Iraq and Jordan, heads on to a three stop-tour of Europe, beginning in Berlin on Thursday.