Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas will hold his first talks with Hamas on Saturday after the group's parliamentary election victory. Sami Abu Zuhri, a Hamas spokesman in Gaza, said Abbas and Hamas officials would meet in Gaza at 1700 GMT. "It is yet unclear whether the president will ask Hamas to form the government officially or not," he said. "The meeting today is very important because we await answers from the president on several issues concerning the coming stage," he added, but did not elaborate. Abbas had said on Friday the formation of a government was still some way off and that talks could take a while. He said he expected Hamas, which won an overall majority of 74 seats in the 132-seat parliament, would most likely be the party to form the next government and insisted the new government would have to abide by the agreements signed by the Palestinian Authority.
