A delegation of Palestinian Islamic Hamas movement arrived in Egypt on Tuesday to attend a new round of inter-Palestinian unity talks under the sponsorship of Egypt.

The 15-member Hamas delegation from the Gaza Strip crossed into Egypt via the Rafah land terminal earlier in the day, the Egyptian MENA news agency reported.

Meanwhile, a delegation of Hamas' rival Fatah movement also left for Cairo and is likely to arrive later in the day, according to an earlier report.

The Egypt-brokered inter-Palestinian national unity dialogue, which was resumed late February, is expected to enter its third round of talks on April 1.

In the first round of the talks in late February, rival Palestinian factions agreed to form five committees to work on issues related to the Palestinian reconciliation process.

In the second round of the meetings in March 10-19, the Palestinian committees began to discuss the issues of forming a national unity government, reforming the security services, holding elections, reforming the Palestine Liberation Organization(PLO) and pushing forward the reconciliation.

The Palestinian groups suspended their talks on March 19 without reaching a major breakthrough on pending issues, including the formation of a unity government.

However, the factions have agreed on the nature of the government "to be a transitional national unity one," though the composition and the platforms of the future government has not be settled.

Nabil Shaath, Fatah's central committee member and head of the group's delegation to Cairo, has said the new round of talks will be "decisive."