CAIRO: Egyptian-mediated Palestinian reconciliation talks between rivals Fatah and Hamas set for next Saturday have been delayed for a month, Egypt s official MENA news agency said on Sunday.
Egyptian officials decided that some issues required further discussion and efforts. The date for the last round of talks, July 25, does not leave enough time to resolve the differences, MENA quotes Palestinian officials as saying.
So it was agreed to delay the talks until Aug. 25, the officials said.
The rival Palestinian factions resumed reconciliation talks in February and had agreed to begin what they said would be a final round on Saturday.
Cairo has been mediating the talks between president Mahmoud Abbas s secular Fatah party and the Islamist Hamas aimed at healing bitter divisions between the two, aggravated after Hamas seized control of Gaza in 2007 following its win in 2006 elections.
Hamas and Fatah delegations have been meeting in Cairo over the last two days to discuss the talks progress.
The talks hope to seal a deal which will lay out a new electoral law as well as define the make-up of security forces and of a committee to liaise between the Gaza Strip and the West Bank ahead of an election in 2010.
Hamas has demanded that Abbas Palestinian Authority release all political prisoners – referring to the scores of Hamas members arrested in the Israeli-occupied West Bank – or provide a timetable for their release.
Both sides have since announced the release of dozens of prisoners.
Fatah and Hamas have accused each other of persecuting their rival s supporters in the territories under their control, while human rights groups have accused both groups of making arbitrary arrests and mistreating detainees.
The two groups deny they make political arrests, saying the arrests are made on security grounds. -AFP
