CAIRO: Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas’s Fatah movement hammered an agreement with the rival Hamas group on Wednesday on forming an interim government and fixing a date for general election, Egyptian intelligence said.
Hamas has signed a Palestinian reconciliation deal and agreed to hold elections within a year, a Abbas spokesman said.
"The consultations resulted in full understandings over all points of discussions, including setting up an interim agreement with specific tasks and to set a date for election," Egyptian intelligence said in a statement.
Cairo will soon invite top Hamas, Fatah leaders to reconciliation signing ceremony, according to a Hamas spokesman.
A Hamas spokesman said "all points of differences" with Palestinian rivals Fatah have been overcome.
Delegations from rival Palestinian factions Fatah and Hamas arrived in Cairo on Wednesday to hold Egyptian-mediated reconciliation talks.
The teams were to meet Egypt’s new spy chief Murad Muwafi, whose predecessor Omar Suleiman tried unsuccessfully to bridge a split between the two groups that has left Gaza and the West Bank ruled by rival administrations.
The delegation of Hamas which rules the Gaza Strip includes senior members from the territory and its Damascus-based deputy leader, Mussa Abu Marzuk.
Egypt, which shares a border with Gaza, has tried to bring the two sides together since Hamas defeated Fatah loyalists in week-long street battles four years ago, reducing their power base to the Israeli-occupied West Bank.
Nabil El-Araby, Egypt’s new foreign minister after a revolt toppled the previous regime in February, has said he plans to visit Ramallah, seat of Abbas who heads Fatah, to push for unity.
The Palestinian factions were on the verge of agreeing a deal in 2009 that would have led to a transitional government ahead of elections when Hamas pulled out, saying the accord had been revised without its approval. –Additional reporting by AFP
