A senior Palestinian official on Tuesday urged China to continue its support for the Palestinian cause.

"We hope that the Chinese support for the Palestinian cause, people and Fatah movement will continue until a (future) Palestinian state is established," spokesman for Fatah movement Ahmed Assaf said in an interview via phone with Xinhua.

A high-level delegation from Fatah movement is scheduled to visit China at the end of this month.

Assaf said that during the visit, "we can learn from China's rich experience and its diligence to score today's impressive achievements."

The delegation will brief the Chinese leadership on efforts exerted to revive the long-stalled Israeli-Palestinian peace process and reach inter-Palestinian reconciliation as well as the Israeli practices in the Palestinian territories, he added.

"China is one of the world's most important countries and it is a permanent member of the UN Security Council. It has well- established economic and political systems and has a say in the international arena.... We expect a bigger role equal to its rank. "

Meanwhile, Assaf said Fatah hopes Hamas could ink the Egyptian- brokered inter-Palestinian reconciliation pact which has been delayed for several times since September, 2009.

He accused Hamas of being controlled by external powers whom he did not name, saying that this is the cause behind the delay in signing the pact.

"We are convinced that Hamas can not make its own decision about this," he added.

Assaf also ruled out exiled Hamas leader Khaled Meshaal will attend the upcoming Arab League summit slated for late March in Libya.

"Only countries and official leaders are invited to attend the summit ... This is a summit of state leaders not a summit of party leaders. We do not expect him to be invited, because parties have never been and will never be invited to the summits," he added.

(Xinhua News Agency February 25, 2010)