Crucial talks planned between Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and Hamas' exiled leader on forming a unity government were postponed, a senior Hamas official said, dimming hopes for an end to months of deadly infighting.
``The meeting was postponed until tomorrow. We hope that it will be held,'' Izzat Rashaq, a member of Hamas' politburo, said on Saturday.
Rashaq said that additional negotiations were needed to resolve outstanding issues before Hamas and Fatah could agree on a national unity government. He did not elaborate.
Another senior member of a Palestinian faction also said that the Abbas-Mashaal meeting planned for Saturday had been postponed.
``There are difficulties facing such a meeting and there are current mediations to try and resolve the problems,'' he said, speaking on condition of anonymity and that his faction not be named because of the sensitivity of the matter.
There had been hopes that the meeting -- the first between Abbas and Mashaal since July 2005 -- could end the year-long deadlock between the militant Hamas, which controls the Palestinian parliament and Cabinet, and Abbas' more moderate Fatah.
Abbas has threatened to call early elections if the two sides failed to agree on forming a national unity government.
With the two sides unable to agree, tensions have repeatedly exploded into open warfare in the Gaza Strip -- a traditional Hamas stronghold -- that has claimed the lives of at least 62 people.
But disputes still remain on the toughest issues -- control of the two factions' powerful security forces and Hamas' refusal to recognize Israel's right to exist.
Late on Saturday, Abbas' aide Saeb Erekat refused to confirm there would be a meeting.
"The purpose of this visit is for President Abbas to meet with President [Bashar] Assad, though I'm not excluding the possibility of President Abbas meeting with Mr Mashaal and other Palestinian leaders in Damascus," he told reporters.
Abbas met with the Syrian-based leaders of the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine and Islamic Jihad at his hotel in the Syrian capital.
Rashaq, the Hamas official, said Islamic Jihad leader Ramadan Shallah and the leaders of other Palestinian factions were involved in mediation efforts to try to resolve the problems.
Shallah, following his meeting with Abbas, acknowledged there were ``important outstanding issues'' that still needed to be resolved but said both sides were still willing to reach an agreement.
Abbas has been pushing Hamas for months to form a coalition government of independent experts, in hopes of ending sanctions which have pushed Palestinians deeper into poverty.
Abbas met earlier on Saturday with Syrian President Bashar Assad.
Palestinian legislator, Nabil Amr, who attended the meeting, later told reporters that the Syrian leader expressed readiness to support all "efforts aimed at achieving Palestinian unity."
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