WASHINGTON - Lebanon's parliamentary leader Saad Hariri said Friday that the Islamic militant group Hamas will need to act responsibly following its shock victory in Palestinian elections.

"I think Hamas needs to decide on how to move forward on peace with Israel and how to make policy," Hariri, the son of slain former Lebanese premier Rafiq Hariri, told reporters ahead of a meeting with US President George W. Bush.

"The Palestinian people gave them a vote of confidence and they need to be responsible," he said.

"Now they (Hamas) have to bear the responsibility of the Palestinian people, they have to bear whether they accept Israel as a state or not, they have to bear whether to go on with the peace process and the Palestinian people will judge them on these issues," Hariri said.

"Slogans and rhetoric are all very easy," he added. "But eventually the slogans fade and what people want is food, jobs and peace.

"And Hamas now has a great responsibility toward the Palestinian people and they better get their act together and work for the Palestinian people."

Hariri noted that Hamas was now under pressure to renounce terrorism and recognize Israel.

"The whole world is saying that Hamas needs to give up terrorism and recognize Israel and I think Hamas is in a difficult situation and it needs to take a decision," he said.

"It comes without saying that if Hamas denounces terrorism, accepts Israel, does what Fatah did ... what happened with Fatah should happen with Hamas," he said.

After decades of armed struggle, Yasser Arafat's Fatah movement publicly renounced violence and its call for the destruction of Israel and entered into peace talks with the Jewish state.

Hariri said the Lebanese Islamic fundamentalist group Hezbollah, which like Hamas is considered a terrorist organization by the United States and has seats in Lebanon's parliament, had managed to establish itself on the political scene by acting responsibly, and so should Hamas.

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