GAZA CITY - THE Palestinian Hamas movement said on Thursday it was accepting 'under conditions' an EU proposal for a ceasefire with Israel around Gaza.

'Hamas accepts this initiative on the condition that the aggression stops, that the blockade is lifted, that all the border crossings are opened and that it gets international guarantees that the occupier will not restart its terrorist war,' spokesman Fawzi Barhum said in a statement.

'A ceasefire deal must be part of a global agreement including a ceasefire, the lifting of the blockade and the reopening of all the border crossings,' he said.

The Rafah border terminal between Egypt and Gaza - the enclave's sole crossing that bypasses Israel - should no longer function under a restrictive 2005 agreement, he said.

The accord requires the presence at Rafah of European observers, video surveillance by Israel and representatives from president Mahmud Abbas's Palestinian Authority.

Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak has cited the lack of EU observers and Palestinian Authority officials at Rafah since Hamas seized control of the Gaza Strip in June last year as the reason his government has not opened the crossing to allow Palestinians to flee the assault.

A statement by the European Union released after a foreign ministers meeting in Paris on Tuesday began by a demand of an 'unconditional' stop to Hamas rocket attacks.

'There must be an unconditional halt to rocket attacks by Hamas on Israel and an end to Israeli military action,' the EU statement said. -- AFP