Islamic Hamas movement on Sunday said it has no problem for President Mahmoud Abbas of rival Fatah party to visit the Gaza Strip.

"The Gaza Strip is an arena for all the Palestinian people including the president whose term ended," said Ismail Radwan, a spokesman for Hamas which controls the territory.

However, Radwan said "those who were involved in crimes" were excluded from that arena, implicitly hinting at some Fatah officials who fought Hamas when it won the parliamentary elections in 2006.

Abbas did not visit Gaza since Hamas routed his forces and ousted his movement in deadly fighting in 2007. Instead, he positioned himself in West Bank and formed a Western-backed administration there while Hamas installed its own government in Gaza.

Since then, the two movements have been cracking down against their political opponents; Hamas supporters in West Bank and Fatah-affiliated persons in Gaza.

Radwan's remarks were made following Israeli media reports that Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak advised Abbas to visit Gaza to ease the atmosphere ahead of a new round of inter-Palestinian talks that Cairo is hosting next week.

Hamas and Fatah try to reach an agreement on a unified government replacing the two feuding administrations in Gaza Strip and West Bank.