On the sidelines of the Cairo-hosted Palestinian national dialogue, rival Hamas and Fatah movements on Tuesday agreed on forming a committee to settle the arrest of opponents they traded.

Sami Abu Zuhri, a Hamas spokesman, said the success of the dialogue is subject to the progress made by the committee. In a statement sent to the media, he revealed that the committee started its first meeting in the Egyptian capital on Tuesday.

"The committee will draw up a plan to end the political arrests," Abu Zuhri said, "Hamas' demands in this regard are stopping detentions in the West Bank and releasing all its supporters there."

Hamas says security forces loyal to President Mahmoud Abbas, who is also Fatah chief, hold about 750 Hamas members and supporters in the West Bank.

On the other hand, Fatah says Hamas is still hunting down its activists and loyalists in the Gaza Strip and has arrested hundreds of them over the past couple of days only.

Al-Dameer Organization, a Gaza-based human rights group, Tuesday accused Hamas and Fatah of continuing illegal arrests against their dissidents in the two parts of the Palestinian territories.

The mutual crackdown started in June 2007 when Hamas routed pro-Abbas forces and seized control of Gaza.

Egypt determined to declare the Palestinian reconciliation deal on July 7 and has been pressing the two movements to bridge their gaps ahead of that date. Hamas said it would not sign the deal if the arrests did not stop.

(Xinhua News Agency July 1, 2009)