The Palestinian Islamic Hamas movement suspended scheduled meetings with rival Fatah group in the West Bank on Tuesday, protesting continued arrests against its members there by security forces of Fatah leader, President Mahmoud Abbas.

Mahmoud al-Rumhi, a Hamas lawmaker here, told Xinhua that Hamas representatives in the reconciliation committee will restrain from joining meetings with their Fatah counterparts unless the security forces stop hunting down Hamas supporters and free all activists.

The reconciliation committee is one of the five specialized bodies that came out from an Egyptian-sponsored wider dialogue between Hamas and Fatah to reconcile the two rivals on a unity government taking control in the West Bank and in the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip.

"The committee's work will remain suspended until the Palestinian (National) Authority takes a clear position regarding Hamas' prisoners in the West Bank," al-Ramhi said.

He added that Fatah rejected a Hamas proposal to release all members of the Islamic movement in the West Bank in exchange for some 170 Fatah activists that Hamas holds in Gaza by July 7.

Last week, the committee reached an agreement to end the politically-motivated arrests against Hamas members in the West Bank and Fatah supporters in Gaza.

Fatah claimed that 20 Hamas members have been set free in the West Bank but Hamas said a similar number of its followers there was detained in the past 24 hours. Hamas said up to 750 supporters are jailed in the West Bank.

A Hamas delegation is due to arrive in Egypt Saturday to continue the inter-Palestinian reconciliation dialogue but Salah al-Bardaweel, a Hamas lawmaker, said that the delegation will not hold any talks with Fatah unless the prisoners are freed.

(Xinhua News Agency June 24, 2009)