JERUSALEM - Defying U.S. and Israeli policy shunning Hamas as a terror group, former U.S. President Jimmy Carter warmly embraced a leader of the Islamic militants during a visit to the West Bank.

Israel on Tuesday accused Carter, the broker of the first Arab-Israeli peace accord three decades ago, of "dignifying" extremists. But the ex-president vowed to meet Hamas' supreme leader later this week in Syria.

On Wednesday, Carter has a meeting scheduled with Israeli and Palestinian peace activists.

Carter, a Nobel Peace Prize laureate, is on a private peace mission to the Middle East. His itinerary also includes stops in Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Jordan and Syria - where the virulently anti-Israel Hamas movement is headquartered. He then returns to Israel next Monday.

Carter has been shunned by Israel this week, and the White House has criticized him for his willingness to meet with Hamas leaders. Carter says the U.S. and Israel should stop isolating the militant Islamic group, whose control of the Gaza Strip threatens to undermine Israeli-Palestinian peace efforts.

"Since Syria and Hamas will have to be involved in a final peace agreement, they have to be involved in discussions that lead to final peace," Carter said in the West Bank city of Ramallah.

Also Tuesday, Carter laid a wreath at Yasser Arafat's grave at the government compound in Ramallah, breaking with U.S. policy. President George W. Bush cut off contacts with Arafat before he died in 2004, blaming the longtime Palestinian leader for the breakdown of peace talks and subsequent wave of violence. Bush did not visit Arafat's grave when he visited Ramallah this year.

During the ceremony, a two-man honor guard escorted Carter and his wife, Rosalynn. Carter placed the wreath on the grave then solemnly nodded before turning away. Later, a Palestinian host told Carter that Arafat's resting place was temporary, and the Palestinians hope to move his remains to Jerusalem one day.

Later, Carter attended a reception organized by his office for Palestinian dignitaries in Ramallah. At the gathering, Carter embraced Nasser Shaer, a senior Hamas politician, meeting participants said.

"We hugged each other, and it was a warm reception," Shaer said. "Carter asked what he can do to achieve peace between the Palestinians and Israel ... and I told him the possibility for peace is high."

Shaer, who served as deputy prime minister and education minister in the Hamas-led Palestinian government that unraveled last year, is considered a leading member of the Islamic militant group's pragmatic wing. After a stint in an Israeli prison last year, he is now a professor at a West Bank university, teaching comparative religion.

Palestinians say Shaer, an academic, was not involved in Hamas attacks against Israel, and Israel has never charged him with violent activity.

Carter's office refused to comment on the closed meeting. However, embraces between men are a common custom in Arab culture.

Israel has said Carter's talks with Hamas will only embolden Palestinian extremists and hurt the moderate Palestinian president, Mahmoud Abbas, as he tries to make peace with the Jewish state. Abbas is in a bitter rivalry with Hamas, which routed his forces in the Gaza Strip last year and seized control of the area.

Hamas, which is committed to Israel's destruction and has killed more than 250 Israelis in suicide bombings, is considered a terrorist group by Israel and the U.S. Carter is scheduled to meet Khaled Mashaal, the group's exiled leader, in Damascus, Syria, on Friday.

"The official Hamas position until this day is that it won't negotiate with Israel or recognize it under any circumstance," Israeli Foreign Ministry official Yigal Palmor said. "Jimmy Carter has dignified this position with his presence, and one cannot but wonder how this attitude is supposed to promote peace and understanding."

Carter's comparisons of Israeli policies in the West Bank - such as separate roads for Jews and Arabs - to apartheid in South Africa also have angered Israeli leaders.

Prime Minister Ehud Olmert is not meeting with Carter this week, and the only Israeli leader to host him, the ceremonial president, Shimon Peres, criticized Carter for the planned Mashaal meeting.

U.S. officials have also said they disagree with Carter's decision to talk to Hamas. There was no immediate U.S. comment Tuesday on his embrace of Shaer or visit to Arafat's grave.

The Israeli daily Haaretz on Tuesday criticized Israel's attitude toward Carter, who brokered the country's historic peace agreement with Egypt in 1979. Carter went on to win the 2002 Nobel Peace Prize for his years of trying to resolve international conflicts.

"The boycott will not be remembered as a glorious moment in this government's history," the newspaper said. "Jimmy Carter has dedicated his life to humanitarian missions, to peace, to promoting democratic elections and to better understanding between enemies throughout the world."

Carter has acknowledged his trip is not an official mission. But he says isolating Hamas is counterproductive, and he has offered to serve as a conduit between the militant group and the U.S. and Israeli governments.

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AP correspondents Dalia Nammari and Mohammed Daraghmeh in Ramallah contributed to this article.