"We have the responsibility as Muslim countries to support our brothers in Palestine," Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki told reporters during a brief visit to Indonesia, which has more Muslims than any other nation.

He said that a plan by the Organization of the Islamic Conference to collect donations and provide institutional support for Hamas should be supported.

Iran shares a nearly identical regional political strategy with Hamas.

Both have called for the destruction of Israel and neither recognizes the Jewish state.

Hamas has refused Western demands to renounce violence, accept Israel's right to exist and abide by past agreements between Israel and the Palestinian Government.

The United States and European Union, which consider Hamas a terrorist group, have said they will halt their grants of hundreds of millions of dollars of aid to the Palestinian Authority after a Hamas government takes office unless it changes its attitude toward Israel and violence