The Palestinian leadership on Saturday accused Islamic Hamas movement of eluding national reconciliation.

Hamas, which controls the Gaza Strip, "is still evading the obligation to reconcile and wants to lengthen the division to serve non-Palestinian agenda far from our people's interests," said Tayeb Abdul Rahim, the Palestinian presidency's secretary-general.

Fatah movement has accepted an Egyptian proposal to reconcile with Hamas following the Islamic movement's 2007 violent takeover of Gaza.

The proposal, presented to the Palestinian rivals in October, calls for holding elections in the middle of next year after taking several steps to restore political life in Gaza and ties with the West Bank.

Hamas is scheduled to respond to the proposal on Sunday. However, Taher al-Nounou, a spokesman for Hamas administration, said Hamas "will show essential reservations on the Egyptian document."

"We hope that these reservations would be resolved with the Egyptian brothers to reach the Palestinian reconciliation," al-Nounou told Xinhua.

But Abdul Rahim accused Hamas of not showing clear acceptance of the Egyptian proposals during four rounds of dialogue Cairo has hosted since February. "Every time, Hamas creates pretexts and excuses to block the process of reconciliation," he said.

(Xinhua News Agency October 18, 2009)