Palestinian unity government due in hours: Envoy

UNITED NATIONS, Nov 7: The Palestinians could announce a national unity government, led by ''an independent technocrat'' who was from neither the Hamas nor Fatah movements, a top Palestinian diplomat said.

The new prime minister would be selected jointly by President Mahmoud Abbas' Fatah group and current Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh's Hamas, and it would not be Haniyeh, said Riyad Mansour, the Palestinian observer at the United Nations.

In the new cabinet, ''there will be individuals with technical skills from Hamas, from Fatah, from the other groups and independents, but it would take the form of a national unity government with a technocrat flavor,'' Mansour told reporters at a news conference at UN headquarters yesterday.

Mansour also said the Palestinian Authority, backed by Arab governments, had called on the UN Security Council to convene an emergency session to discuss mounting violence in Gaza.

He said the Palestinians wanted the council to adopt a resolution calling for a mutual cease-fire in Gaza and for UN observers to be sent into the area to enforce the cease-fire agreement, as was done in southern Lebanon after the 34-day war between Israel and Lebanon's Hezbollah that ended in August.

Abbas spoke to UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan over the weekend to discuss the deteriorating situation and wrote to the Security Council on Monday promising to do his utmost to control the situation if the council acted, Mansour said.

The escalation of violence in Gaza was an obstacle to the formation of a unity government, Mansour said, accusing Israel of intensifying its military actions in the past whenever the Palestinians neared agreement on a compromise government, ''as if they do not really want to find a solution on this issue.''

Reuters