BRUSSELS (Reuters) - U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice praised Egyptian efforts to bring calm to the Middle East when asked on Thursday about talks between Cairo and Palestinian militant groups Hamas and Islamic Jihad.

Rice told a Brussels news conference she could not comment on specific meetings but said: “I talked with the Egyptians and we fully expect the Egyptians to carry out the efforts that they said they would carry out to try to bring about calm in the region, to try to improve the situation in Gaza.”

Asked whether talking to Hamas, branded a terrorist group by the United States, Israel and Europe, did not undermine peace efforts, she said: “As you know, Egypt is a good ally in this effort to help the Annapolis (Israeli-Palestinian peace) solution come into being, and I trust that what the Egyptians are doing is exactly in that course.”