Hamas picks PM candidate but doesn't identify him

GAZA, Nov 6 (Reuters) Hamas has chosen a candidate to take over as prime minister from one of its leaders once agreement on a unity government is finalised with President Mahmoud Abbas, a spokesman for the Hamas-led administration said today.

''Palestine is bigger than all of us,'' Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh told a meeting of his cabinet in what sounded like a farewell speech. ''It is very easy for us to move to another position in the interests (of our people).'' Government spokesman Ghazi Hamad declined to identify Hamas's proposed replacement for Haniyeh in a deal with Abbas's Fatah group that Palestinians hope can ease Western sanctions aimed at pressuring the group to soften its anti-Israel line.

''There has been an agreement within Hamas over the name, which will be announced to the president in a meeting between him and the prime minister,'' Hamad said, indicating the group reserved the right to pick the head of a new cabinet.

Hamad did not say whether Hamas's candidate belonged to the movement, which advocates Israel's destruction.

''We are exerting every possible effort to conclude this in the near future. If we agree on the issue of the prime minister between the president and the party that names the prime minister, all other issues will be easy,'' Hamad said.

Asked about the shape of a new government, Haniyeh told reporters: ''Everything is pending on my meeting with President Abu Mazen (Abbas).'' Abbas travelled to Gaza and Haniyeh said he expected to see the president later in the day for talks on a unity government dedicated to ''lifting the siege and ending the suffering of the Palestinian people''.

There was no immediate comment from Abbas, whose faction was defeated by Hamas in a Palestinian election in January.

Yasser Abed Rabbo, a senior Abbas aide, spoke prior to Hamad's comments of naming ''an independent prime minister'' who would help ''lift the siege imposed on the Palestinians''. Hamas said a new government should be dedicated to ending sanctions.

But Hamas spokesmen have stressed it will never recognise Israel or join a government that did, rejecting one of the main conditions set by the ''Quartet'' of West Asia peace brokers for renewing direct aid to the Palestinian Authority.

TENTATIVE DEAL Hamas lawmaker and senior leader Yahya Moussa announced yesterday an agreement in principle with Fatah on a unity government of technocrats that would not be headed by Haniyeh.

Mustafa Barghouthi, an independent lawmaker who has been mediating between Hamas leaders and Abbas, confirmed late yesterday that a tentative deal had been made.

In violence in the northern Gaza Strip, an Israeli aircraft fired a missile near a school bus, killing a 16-year-old Palestinian and wounding four other people, witnesses and hospital officials said.

None of the casualties had been on board the bus, although one of the wounded was a teacher, the witnesses said.

An Israeli military spokesman said the strike in the town of Beit Lahiya targeted Palestinians who had come to retrieve launchers used to fire rockets into the Jewish state.

A militant was shot dead near the town in a later incident, witnesses and hospital officials said. Israeli forces have been operating in Beit Lahiya and nearby Beit Hanoun since last week in a bid to beat back Palestinian rocket crews and gunmen.

East of Gaza City, an Israeli aircraft killed a Hamas gunman, witnesses and rescue workers said. The Israeli military said its forces fired at two Palestinians carrying an anti-tank weapon. At least 51 Palestinians, more than half of them gunmen, and an Israeli soldier have been killed in six days of fighting.

REUTERS SP PM1919