Rival Islamic Hamas movement and Fatah movement decided on Tuesday to adjourn the current round of Palestinian reconciliation talks in Cairo to May 16-17.

A senior Hamas official said on Tuesday that the inter-Palestinian dialogue which resumed in Cairo on Monday has been postponed until May 16-17.

The decision to postpone the dialogue "was made to enable the two movements to have more consultations with their leaderships over new Egyptian ideas and proposals, " Mahmoud al-Zahar, a Hamas negotiator, was quoted by the Bethlehem-based Maan news agency as saying.

He said the security issue and the reform of Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) were the two most complicated issues that dominated the current round of the Egypt-sponsored dialogue in the past two days.

Egypt has been mediating between the two rival movements to end their differences on substantial issues related to forming a unity government to end the current rift between Gaza and the West Bank.

Al-Zahar revealed that discussions on the security issue centered on a proposal of merging all security forces in Gaza and the West Bank and forming professional security forces.

Fatah negotiator Azzam el-Ahmad said the core issue of forming a unity government has not been debated in this round of dialogue, adding that breakthrough was achieved on the issues of elections and security forces.

He said the conferees agreed that the PLO "is the sole and legitimate representative of the Palestinian people and the reference for any national activity, mainly the implementation of the 2005 Cairo agreement."

"It was agreed to form a temporary joint national committee headed by President Mahmoud Abbas that its mission is to work on reforming the Palestinian National Council (PNC)," said el-Ahmad.

He also said "if the two movements fail to agree on forming the transitional unity government, we will take the Egyptian proposal on forming a factional committee to implement what will be agreed upon."

Egypt has said that it will continue to sponsor the dialogue and create the proper atmosphere to end the current rift between Fatah and Hamas.

(Xinhua News Agency April 29, 2009)