RAMALLAH, West Bank (AFP) - An advisor to a US general helping revamp Palestinian security forces has made several trips to Gaza, even though Washington considers the Hamas rulers of the territory terrorists, Palestinian officials said on Friday.

A Canadian colonel who advises Lieutenant General Keith Dayton has made at least three recent visits to the Gaza Strip, security officials said.

Washington refuses to have any official contact with Hamas, an Islamist movement the United States and Israel consider a terror group.

A senior Western official with knowledge of the matter, who asked not to be named, said the advisor also worked for the office of the military attache at the Canadian embassy in Tel Aviv, and insisted he travelled to Gaza "in that capacity, on some Canadian national business."

"It had no official connection with the Dayton team."

The Canadian met with Hamas officials in Gaza, a Palestinian official said.

He also met with a senior officer of the security services loyal to Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas that have been inactive in Gaza since Hamas seized power in June.

Aides of the Palestinian officer confirmed the two held talks on two occasions.

"He went to Gaza for the first time two months ago and returned at least twice," one on the Palestinian officials said.

"During each visit he was escorted by the Hamas police who drove him right up to the officer's house."

Hamas officials also accompanied the Canadian when he visited Khan Yunes in southern Gaza and the Rafah border crossing with Egypt, the officials said.

Hamas denied a Dayton aide had travelled to Gaza. "This is fabricated information," spokesman Ismail Radwan told AFP.

Hamas accuses Dayton of seeking to strengthen forces loyal to Abbas so they can defeat the Islamist movement.

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