Carter was expected to discuss with Meshaal the release of Israeli soldier Corporal Gilad Shalit, captured by Palestinian militants in June 2006. They were also to discuss the possibility of a truce between Hamas and Israel and the ending of sanctions on Gaza.

The meeting was being held at a Hamas office in the Syrian capital.

Although Israel has snubbed Carter over his plans to talk with Hamas, Israeli Deputy Prime Minister Eli Yishai said he told the 2002 Nobel Peace prize winner he is ready to meet Meshaal to negotiate the release of prisoners held by the Islamist movement, according to Ha'aretz on Friday.

"I am ready to meet with all necessary Hamas members," the newspaper quoted him as saying.

Yishai's office said he had not asked Prime Minister Ehud Olmert for permission to hold the meeting with Carter or told him what was discussed.

Carter is on a nine-day regional tour that has already seen him visit Israel, the West Bank and Egypt. Earlier on Friday he met with Syrian President Bashar Assad.

The two men expressed "their support for dialogue in arriving at political solutions to problems" and considered it important to "mobilize efforts to reduce the suffering of the Palestinians and to lift the [Israeli] blockade" on the Gaza Strip, AFP reported.

On Thursday, Carter met with top Gaza-based Hamas leaders Mahmoud Zahar and Said Siam. That meeting took place in Cairo after Israel barred the former president from visiting the Gaza Strip, which the Islamists have ruled since seizing it in June.

"We had common points of view and the talks will continue during the meeting with the political leadership of Hamas in Damascus," Zahar said in a telephone interview with AFP from Gaza.

During the Israeli leg of his visit, Carter met Shalit's parents and pledged to take up with Meshaal calls for his release.

Hamas is considered a terrorist organization by Israel, the United States and European Union.

Washington has said the former president, seen as the architect of the historic 1979 Egypt-Israel peace treaty, is acting in a personal capacity.

In Beirut, U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern Affairs David Welch said Carter's conversations with Hamas leaders risked being "misrepresented."

"We are concerned to advance peace here. We see no intention on the part of Hamas in doing so and there is some risk that these conversations will be misrepresented by Hamas," he said.

But Carter insists he is not acting as a mediator and has been urging talks with Hamas and Syria, saying peace cannot be reached without them.

"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 in Israel on Monday.

Carter's 2006 book, "Palestine: Peace, Not Apartheid" infuriated Jewish groups who accused him of racism and anti-Semitism.

Carter's tour will also include U.S. allies Saudi Arabia and Jordan.