LOD, Israel (AFP) -- Former U.S. President Jimmy Carter said on Monday that Syria and the Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas must be involved in any future peace deal, but the White House said he was acting in a private capacity.

""I think it's absolutely crucial that in a final dreamed-about and prayed-for peace agreement for this region that Hamas be involved and that Syria be involved,"" he said at a conference near Israel's Ben Gurion Airport.
Carter has drawn fire from U.S. and Israeli officials over reports that he plans to meet exiled Hamas leader Khaled Meshaal in Damascus later this week.
""I'll be meeting with all the factions of the Palestinians which is also controversial, I know,"" Carter said.
In Washington the White House said Carter did not represent the United States in his Mideast tour.
""The president believes that if Carter wants to go, that he is doing so in his own private capacity, as a private citizen, he is not representing the United States,"" spokeswoman Dana Perino said.
President George W. Bush ""is not a supporter of having conversations with Hamas, and we have made that known,"" she added.
Carter stressed he was on a fact-finding tour for the Carter Centre, but said he hoped his trip would have a positive influence on the Middle East peace process.
""My hope is, although I'm not in a negotiation or mediation role, that we can induce the Palestinians, all of them, to have a ceasefire, and move toward justice and peace,"" he told an audience of a few hundred business people.
He said that while he did not know whether Hamas and Syria would be ""amenable to any suggestion,"" he should at least be able to pass on their views to US leaders.
And, he added, pointedly, ""I hope that by then the leaders of the Israeli government will deign to meet me.""
Carter did not meet Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, in an apparent snub by the Israeli government.
A Hamas spokesman in Gaza said Carter was expected to meet Meshaal in Damascus over the weekend.
""It will be the opportunity for Hamas to clarify its position and break the policy of isolation imposed by the United States, and Israel, along with others, against Hamas,"" spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri told AFP.
""That is why Israel is exercising pressure to try to prevent this meeting,"" he said.
Carter's plans to meet Hamas leaders have also drawn short shrift from his fellow Democrats on the White House campaign trail, anxious to display their support for Israel.
Earlier on Monday, Carter toured the rocket-battered Israeli town of Sderot on the edge of the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip.
""I think it's a despicable crime for any deliberate effort to be made to kill innocent civilians. My hope is that there will be a ceasefire soon that will stop all this,"" he said.
Carter visited the local police station, behind which are stacked dozens of twisted, rusting shells of rockets that have fallen on or near the town. A date chalked onto the metal indicates when each of them hit.
""I'm obviously distressed to see this happen,"" Carter told reporters after running his fingers along the twisted metal of the crudely painted shells.
""We have mixed feelings about him,"" said Sderot Mayor Eli Moyal of Carter. ""Look at these missiles. I want to explain to him that we have had 7,000 rockets land here.""
Carter arrived on Sunday in Israel, where he held talks with President Shimon Peres before meeting the parents of an Israeli soldier captured in June 2006 by Gaza militants.
He met Palestinian prime minister Salim Fayyad in the West Bank political capital of Ramallah on Tuesday.
The nine-day regional tour will also take Carter to Egypt, Syria, Jordan, and Saudi Arabia. The former U.S. president is considered the architect of the historic 1979 Egypt-Israel peace treaty and won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2002.