The comments came as Hamas leader Khaled Meshaal finished the group's first formal visit to a major world power with a tour of the Kremlin and a meeting with Patriarch Alexei II, head of the Russian Orthodox Church.
Hamas officials described their visit to Russia as a "breakthrough" and expressed hope that it would help the group -- listed as a terrorist organisation by Israel, the United States and Europe -- establish legitimacy on the world stage.
"This visit will encourage many countries to contact Hamas and invite Hamas to their countries," senior Hamas official Mohammed Nazzal told news agency AFP.
After three days of insisting that the next move in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict was up to Israel, Hamas leaders sought to sweeten their rhetoric while still rebuffing calls to recognise Israel and renounce violence.
"We don't say 'no' to everything," Mr Nazzal said.
"We know that we are in a new phase, a new stage," following Hamas' victory in the January 25 Palestinian elections, he said.
"Hamas must change its manners. We know that very well. But what we are saying is that we want a response from the Israelis. If you want Hamas to change its policies, you must also request that the Israelis change their policies."
Mr Putin's invitation to Hamas to visit Moscow caught the other three members of the international Middle East "quartet" of mediators -- the US, the European Union and the United Nations -- by surprise.
The Hamas delegation on Friday met with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, who made clear after the meeting that its purpose had been to convey the quartet's expectations of Hamas.
The quartet is insisting that Hamas renounce violence, recognise Israel and adhere to previous Israeli-Palestinian agreements.
Mr Lavrov did not deviate from this line during the meeting, but Hamas officials said the trip was a successful first step in the group's debut as a legitimate player on the international political scene.
The trip wound up Sunday night when the Hamas delegation met with some 45 ambassadors, mainly from Arab and Muslim nations, a Hamas official said.
"This visit was very important and very successful," Ezzat el-Risheq told AFP.
Since Friday’s meeting with Hamas, Mr Putin has called his counterparts from Egypt, France, Germany, Italy and the US to brief them on the results.
Al-Qaeda message rejected
Hamas also shrugged off a call from Osama bin Laden's deputy in the al-Qaeda terrorist network to abandon all accords signed by previous Palestinian leaders with Israel.
"This is his own opinion," Mr Nazzal said of the statement from Ayman al-Zawahiri broadcast on the Arabic al-Jazeera television network.
"He has the right to it. But we are neutral. When Hamas wants to take a decision or take a stand it will be a step by the leadership of Hamas alone and will be in the interests of the Palestinian people."
Israeli anger
Acting Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert told Russian President Vladimir Putin that the talks with Hamas were a mistake which would only encourage radical Islamists bent on the destruction of the Jewish state.
"Russia's contacts with Hamas would only encourage the organisation not to make the changes that the international community is demanding of it in order for it to become a partner for dialogue," Mr Olmert’s office said he told Mr Putin in a phone call.
Israeli officials have called Mr Putin's invitation to Hamas a "knife in the back" but Washington cautiously welcomed the talks as a "useful" way to underscore the message of the "international community".
West Bank plan
Meanwhile, Mr Olmert plans a unilateral withdrawal of some settlements in the occupied West Bank if he wins a March 28 general election, Israeli officials said.
Under the four-year plan the settlers would be relocated to bigger settlement blocs, but Israel would not withdraw its forces from evacuated areas as it did during last year's Gaza pullout.
The move would cement Israeli control over the most heavily populated settlements in the West Bank, where Israel is building a barrier it describes as a means to stop suicide bombers and which
Palestinians call a land grab.
"It will only add to complications; this would mean dictation rather than negotiations," Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat said.