Egypt will send a security delegation to the Gaza Strip to follow up the implementation of a national Palestinian agreement Cairo is currently trying to broker, Palestinian sources said on Sunday.

The delegation will mainly oversee the reform of the security services, now controlled and run by Islamic Hamas movement which overran President Mahmoud Abbas's forces in a deadly fighting in June 2007, the sources told Xinhua.

The envoys are expected to come after Hamas and Abbas's Fatah party reach a reconciliation agreement, probably in July.

In addition, the delegation will also try to renew a ceasefire between Israel and the armed Palestinian groups in Gaza and secure a prisoner exchange between Hamas and Israel, the sources said.

Egypt closed down its representation office in Gaza and withdrew all the staff, including the security mission, after Hamas seized control of the coastal strip.

Meanwhile, Hamas welcomed the return of the Egyptian envoys but said their mandate must also include the West Bank which is ruled by the Fatah-dominated Palestinian National Authority.

"If the delegation returns, Hamas will stress that the security issue should be settled in Gaza in parallel to the West Bank," Sami Abu Zuhri, a Hamas spokesman, told reporters in Gaza.

Egypt prepares to launch a new round of talks among the Palestinian groups in a bid to restore political unity to the divided Palestinian territories.

(Xinhua News Agency June 8, 2009)