A Fatah official on Thursday said Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas' movement can not allow Islamic Hamas movement to continue controlling the Gaza Strip.

"We will not allow Hamas to keep its grip on Gaza and there are other options to deal with the status that followed Hamas' takeover" of the Gaza Strip in June 2007, said Azzam al-Ahmad, a senior Fatah leader.

Meanwhile, Hamas responded that Fatah can not call for inter-Palestinian dialogue while it steps up a crackdown against the Islamic movement's supporters in the West Bank.

"Fatah is directly involved in the West Bank campaign to uproot Hamas and this casts shadows on the dialogue," said Fawzi Barhoum, a Hamas spokesman in Gaza.

The trade of accusation between Hamas and Fatah comes a couple of days ahead of the two factions to resume unity and reconciliation talks in Cairo.

The dialogue aims at forming a unity government to restore political ties between the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip and the Fatah-dominated West Bank and end the consequences of Hamas' violent takeover of Gaza.

In previous rounds of talks, Hamas and Fatah agreed on forming a government but failed to agree on its platform.

On April 26, the factions will respond to an Egyptian offer calling for the formation of a Palestinian national committee to liaise between Hamas administration of Gaza and the Abbas-backed government of West Bank until the elections to be held next January.

(Xinhua News Agency April 24, 2009)