Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas has canceled a meeting with
Prime Minister Ismail Haneya of the ruling Hamas movement scheduled
for Tuesday, a presidential spokesman said on Monday.
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"The president is not going to Gaza in the near future because he
is preoccupied with several appointments," Nabil Abu Rdainah said,
adding the president was still insisting that a proposed unity
government abide by interim peace deals signed with Israel.
Earlier, chief Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat said that
Abbas was intended to go to Gaza for a meeting with Haneya to
continue talks on the formation of the unity government that is
expected to end fiscal and political crises.
Some officials believed that the cancellation of the planned
trip was associated with stance of Hamas, which insists that any
agreement on a unity government would not include recognition of
Israel.
On Sept. 11, Abbas announced that an agreement was reached with
the Hamas movement to form a national coalition government.
However, Hamas said it refused to meet conditions of recognizing
Israel, renouncing violence and abiding by previous peace
deals.
Abbas' Fatah movement has accused Hamas of reneging on the
agreement.
Abbas said on Saturday that talks with Hamas over coalition
government were "back to Zero" and must start from scratch.
Hamas said on Monday that an impasse of such talks could be
resolved in two weeks.
(Xinhua News Agency September 26, 2006)
