The Egyptian-sponsored Palestinian unity reconciliation talks may not resume as scheduled later this month, a Palestinian faction said on Monday.

"Holding a new round of the dialogue on April 6 is not confirmed, this date was given to ease the shock that followed the failure of the third round," said Rabah Muhana, a leader of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) in Gaza.

He, however, stressed that in general, the dialogue did not fail and would likely postpone "because the outstanding issues are not yet solved."

The talks mainly aim at reconciling Islamic Hamas movement and President Mahmoud Abbas' Fatah faction by integrating them into a united political regime demonstrating the results of the 2006 parliamentary elections which Hamas won.

Since the dialogue launched in early March, the factions agreed on forming a unity government replacing Hamas' de facto government in Gaza and the West-backed government that Abbas formed in the West Bank after his forces lost control of the Gaza Strip in 2007.

However, Hamas and Fatah failed to agree on the political platform of the government since the Islamic movement says it can not join or accept any government that recognizes Israel or the interim peace deals.

Muhana held that three trends were seen in the process of the dialogue: a Fatah-backed one which calls for adopting the peace accords with Israel in the platform of the government; a Hamas-proposed one which "wants to get the biggest share of the authority's cake without in exchange for the minimum concessions; the third one calls for reaching an agreement without any form of concession.

(Xinhua News Agency April 7, 2009)