Palestine cabinet to be named on Mar 18: Haniyeh

Gaza, Mar 11: A Palestinian unity government will be announced in the next few days and will seek a vote of confidence from parliament next Saturday, Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh of Islamist group Hamas said.

After Saudi mediation, Hamas and rival Fatah agreed at a meeting in Mecca a month ago to forge a joint coalition cabinet, a move that largely ended weeks of bloody factional fighting centred in the Gaza Strip where more than 90 people were killed.

''We will announce the government on Wednesday or Thursday and we will then ask for a vote of confidence in parliament on Saturday,'' Haniyeh said in an interview on Palestine TV.

Haniyeh's comments came after Fatah gunmen shot at the convoy of a Hamas minister in the occupied West Bank, the first serious incident between the two sides since the talks began.

In another incident in Gaza City, unidentified gunmen stormed the campus of the pro-Fatah Al Quds University, and shot and wounded a student council member from Fatah, a Palestinian security source said.

Haniyeh said once the government was formed, he and Abbas would travel together to Saudi Arabia for a summit aimed at reviving an Arab peace initiative first launched by the host country in 2002.

''We have agreed to finalise the national unity government and we will go to the summit with the government in place and as president and prime minister we will ask the Arab countries to support (the new administration),'' he said.

President Mahmoud Abbas of Fatah said on Thursday a unity deal was ''99 per cent'' agreed although he had not yet finalised with Haniyeh who would be interior minister, a post that controls the powerful security services.

The Saudi initiative offered Israel a comprehensive deal with all Arab countries in return for Israel relinquishing land occupied since the 1967 Arab-Israeli war.

If Abbas and Haniyeh travel together to Saudi Arabia it will be the first time the two men will have appeared side by side together internationally. In Mecca last month they each headed rival groups.

Abbas-Olmert Meeting:

Abbas is set to meet Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert in Jerusalem today, but officials on both sides sought to play down the chances of progress.

Olmert has vowed to boycott the new Palestinian unity government unless it recognises Israel, renounces violence and accepts interim peace deals as demanded by the Quartet of West Asia mediators.

Israeli officials said he will stress these points at the meeting.

The unity government agreement contains a vague promise to ''respect'' previous Israeli-Palestinian pacts. But it does not commit the incoming government to abide by those pacts, nor to recognise Israel and renounce violence.

Olmert will also ask Abbas to account for 100 million dollars in Palestinian tax money which Israel transferred to him earlier this year. Some Israeli officials questioned whether the money was used as promised.

Reuters