Israel is maintaining contacts with Palestinians who are interested in negotiating peace, Prime Minister Ariel Sharon has said.
He made the statement in an interview on Israel TV, but would not name the Palestinians he has talked to.
Sharon has ruled out peace negotiations with the Palestinians until all violence stops.
"There are contacts. The contacts will continue," Sharon said. "Slowly the number of people who are prepared to talk peace is growing, and I maintain contacts with them. Whoever is prepared to talk peace, I am prepared to have contact with him."
Formal peace talks between Israel and the Palestinians broke down in January 2001, amid escalating Palestinian-Israeli violence.
Sharon has insisted that before negotiations start again, all the violence must end.
He is running for re-election in a poll on January 28. His main opponent, Labour Party leader Amram Mitzna, proposes an immediate withdrawal from the Gaza Strip and one year of negotiations with the Palestinians over the West Bank. If the negotiations do not produce an accord, Mitzna favours a unilateral Israeli pullback to a border it draws unilaterally.
In the TV interview, Sharon rejected Mitzna's proposal for unilateral action.
"These are things that will hurt us when we get around to negotiations," he said. "We must reach an agreement. Unilateral withdrawal means no disarmament" of a Palestinian state, he said, repeating his acceptance of a Palestinian state with strict limitations in parts of the West Bank and Gaza Strip.