A Fatah lawmaker on Tuesday said external interference were affecting the progress of the inter-Palestinian dialogue.

The dialogue, which mainly involves Abbas' Fatah movement and its Islamic Hamas rival, "faces obstacles and delaying due to external parties that want to impose its own agenda on the debates," said Faisal Abu Shahla, a member of the Palestinian Legislative Council (PLC).

He did not reveal who were those foreign lobbies but Hamas has often accused Fatah of trying to impose the US and the Israeli agenda on the dialogue while Fatah implicitly accused Iran and Syria of influencing Hamas during the talks.

The talks aim at reconciling Hamas and Fatah on a unity government that rules the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip and West Bank.

Shahla said an agreement was reached on "80 percent of the issues that the dialogue tries to tackle and this indicates an imminent breakthrough that would end the internal schism."

The main progress was that the factions agreed on holding elections by January 2010 though they still failing to agree on the electoral law. They also failed to agree on a unity government and are discussing to keep the current Hamas's administration of Gaza and Salam Fayyad government's of West Bank.

(Xinhua News Agency May 6, 2009)