The Egypt-sponsored inter-Palestinian national unity dialogue has been suspended temporarily on Thursday as the factions need more time for consultation.

The two rival Palestinian mainstream movements Fatah and Hamas, whose delegations arrived in Cairo on Tuesday for the talks, has decided to suspend the reconciliation dialogue for two weeks, senior Fatah leader Nabil Shaath told Xinhua.

He explained that the delegates of the movements need more consultation with their leaders on new ideas and suggestions proposed in the past two days' meetings.

However, Shaath declined to elaborate the details of the talks between the two sides, only stressing that "the atmosphere of the talks is comfortable."

Meanwhile, other media reports said the Palestinian unity talks may be suspended for three weeks or even longer.

Azam Ahmed, a senior Fatah leader and a member of the movement's delegation for the unity talks, said the dialogue is likely to be resumed by the end of this month.

Ahmed said Egypt supported the idea to suspend the talks because Fatah and Hamas are "far from reconciliation" and the postponement may lead to progress in the following talks.

"It's clear that the Palestinian movements need to further consult with their leaders," said Ahmed.

Shaath said Egypt, an active mediator of the Palestinian unity talks, will decide later the date of resuming the dialogue for Palestinian reconciliation.

Ahead of Thursday's meeting between Fatah and Hamas, Egyptian intelligence chief Omar Suleiman, who is in charge of the mediation talks, urged the two rival Palestinian movements to find a solution to all pending issues "as soon as possible."

However, the pending issues remained unsettled after two days' intensive meetings.

Senior Hamas leader and negotiator Izzat el-Resheq said in a statement that the talks "have not achieved any progress in all outstanding files."

Hamas spokesman Ismail Radwan also said in a statement that the outstanding issues presented on the table of dialogue "need more time and more efforts in order to reach an agreement."

Egyptian Foreign Ministry spokesman Hossam Zaki called on Palestinian groups to show more flexibility to reach a reconciliation soon, while admitting that "there are no signs any progress has been achieved."

"Controversial issues are still on the table," Zaki said, calling on the Palestinian movements to put national interests as top priority.

The meetings on Wednesday and Thursday was held between representatives of Fatah and Hamas movements, focusing on the pending issues, particularly the formation of a new government with a broad support of the international community.

The Palestinian factions have agreed on the nature of a would-be government "to be a transitional national unity one," though the composition and the platforms of the future government remain unsettled.

The four major outstanding issues that the two sides failed to agree upon are related to the political platform of the future unity government, the security apparatuses, the system of the coming elections and the reform of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO).