PFLP turns down Hamas offer to join government

GAZA, Mar 19 (Reuters) The militant Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine rejected today an offer by Hamas to join the government it is forming, a PFLP leader said, leaving the Islamic group to govern alone.

''We informed the brothers in Hamas that regrettably we are not going to participate in the government because the political programme did not include a fundamental point for us -- that the PLO is the sole, legitimate representative of the Palestinian people,'' said Jamil al-Majdalawi, a PFLP leader.

The PFLP became the last Palestinian faction to turn down Hamas's offer to form a coalition government. Hamas, a group dedicated to Israel's destruction, crushed the long-dominant Fatah movement in a January 25 parliamentary election.

Hamas planned to present its cabinet to President Mahmoud Abbas of Fatah later in the day.

Abbas, who has urged Hamas to accept the Palestine Liberation Organisation's interim peace accords with Israel, said he would not reject the cabinet and expected parliament to convene soon for a vote of confidence.

Hamas's failure to attract any partners and its move to appoint Hamas loyalists to top ministerial posts could bolster US and Israeli efforts to isolate the new government.

Majdalawi said the PFLP's rejection of Hamas's offer should not be seen as a change in his group's opposition to all agreements the PLO has signed with Israel.

In a West Bank prison raid on Tuesday, Israeli forces seized PFLP leader Ahmed Saadat and other members of the group accused of involvement in the 2001 killing of an Israeli cabinet minister.

Reuters SY BS2043