President Mahmoud Abbas' Fatah party and the rival Islamist Hamas movement have agreed to start talks on February 19 with the aim of forming a Palestinian unity government, dpa quoted Fatah official Azzam Ahmad as saying Tuesday. He told reporters in Ramallah the talks will begin in Cairo next week. The talks are supposed to conclude by the end of March, by which time the Palestinian election commission is expected to have finished updating its voter registry and will be ready for elections. After the talks, Abbas will issue two decrees - one announcing the names of the new cabinet ministers and the second setting a date for holding presidential and legislative elections in the West Bank and Gaza Strip. The elections are expected to be held three months later. Ahmad said the formation of a government of technocrats would mark the end of the bitter, six-year rift between Hamas and Fatah. He stressed that Fatah and Hamas have agreed on almost all issues, including oversight of the security forces in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip. The Palestinians have been divided since June 2007 after Hamas routed Fatah forces loyal to Abbas in the Gaza Strip. The coastal enclave has been controlled by Hamas since then. Abbas runs the West Bank. Previous efforts to heal the rift failed.
