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Palestinian factions to resume unity talks in Cairo

Gaza City/Cairo_(dpa) _ Rival Palestinian factions will start a fifth round of talks aimed at forming a "national unity" government in Egyptian-brokered talks in Cairo on Saturday.

Egypt's intelligence service will moderate talks between Hamas, which controls the Gaza Strip, and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas' Fatah faction, which controls Palestinian-administered areas of the West Bank, before other factions join the talks, Palestinian and Egyptian officials said.

"The issue of the government and the security file are still outstanding points of contention," said Nabil Shaath, a leading Fatah delegate at the talks.

After talks faltered for a fourth time in late April, Egypt proposed a compromise whereby a committee would be formed to mediate between the Hamas government in the Gaza Strip and the Fatah government in the West Bank. Shaath said the proposal would likely dominate talks over the next three days.

He also said he expected Hamas and Fatah would agree to an Egyptian proposal on the conduct of fresh elections in early 2010, another sticking point in previous negotiations.

While Shaath could not elaborate in detail on the proposal while it was being discussed, he said it was based on a mix of quotas and regional results.

Roughly a dozen Palestinian factions were initially involved in revived discussions on forming a national unity government after Israel's bombardment of the Gaza Strip in late December and January, but recent talks in Cairo have been between Hamas and Fatah only. If the two come to an agreement, other Palestinian factions will be invited to approve that agreement.

The negotiations come amid a fresh diplomatic push to arrive at a peace deal between Israelis and Palestinians and to release billions of dollars pledged to rebuild Gaza. But without a national unity government, it is unclear who would represent Palestinians in peace talks or receive international aid for Gaza.

The United States and other donor countries have stipulated that no reconstruction aid should fall into the hands of Hamas, which the United States and the European Union list as a terrorist organisation.

At the end of April, reports in the US press cited White House officials as saying they might consider releasing aid to a national unity government that includes Hamas members, drawing protests from supporters of Israel in the United States.

In late April, US Congressman Mark Steven Kirk compared that idea to supporting a government "that only has a few Nazis in it."

"There is no possibility of funding Hamas," US Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton told the Senate Appropriations Committee on April 30. dpa sar zar jbl

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