Former US President Jimmy Carter said Tuesday that the United States, Israel and the European Union must stop favoring the Fatah terrorist group over the Islamist Hamas.

Carter called the Bush administration's refusal to accept the 2006 election victory of Hamas "criminal” and said Hamas had proven itself to have “superior skills and discipline" in its slaughter of Fatah in the recent Gaza clashes. "This effort to divide Palestinians into two peoples now is a step in the wrong direction,” he said.

Carter said that Hamas was elected in an "orderly and fair" election because it was "shrewd in selecting candidates." Carter made the comments at Ireland's eighth annual Forum on Human Rights.