Palestinian rivals have made progress on most of the outstanding issues in their reconciliation talks but differences on drafting an agreement inspired the Egyptian mediators to postpone the dialogue to July 25, a Fatah official said on Wednesday.

"The Egyptians decided to hold a new round of talks between July 25 and July 28 to give Fatah and Hamas a better chance to end the pending issues," said Azzam al-Ahmad, Chief of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas's Fatah delegation to Cairo dialogue.

Hamas and Fatah made progress on the issues of elections, the formation of a factional committee to oversee the situation in Gaza and the deployment of joint forces in the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip, according to al-Ahmad.

"Differences on sketching these issues prevented reaching a solution and that's why the mediators postponed the talks," al-Ahmad explained.

The declaration of the Palestinian agreement was due on July 7, according to several confirmations by the Egyptians.

The dialogue aims at overcoming the Palestinian political split between the Gaza Strip and the Fatah-ruled West Bank, widened after Hamas routed pro-Abbas forces and seized control of Gaza in June 2007.

(Xinhua News Agency July 2, 2009)