Abbas orders release of Hamas woman prisoner

The Islamist Hamas movement which rules Gaza said Tuesday planned reconciliation talks with the Fatah faction of Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas have been postponed due to a spat over the venue."Fatah has asked to be excused from taking part in the meeting which had been due to take place in Damascus tomorrow (Wednesday)," said a Hamas statement released in the Syrian capital where the group has its base in exile."Contacts will be made between the two sides to arrange a new date."

A senior Palestinian official from president Mahmud Abbas's Fatah movement on Thursday rejected Israeli calls to revoke a recent unity deal with Gaza's Hamas rulers.Speaking on a rare visit to the Gaza Strip, Nabil Shaath told reporters that Fatah, which dominates the West Bank-based Palestinian Authority, was completely committed to its reconciliation with its Islamist former rivals.

Ismail Haniya, the prime minister of the Islamist Hamas movement in power in the Gaza Strip, said on Saturday he was "ready to resign.""I am prepared to tender my resignation as part of the reconciliation agreement between Hamas and Fatah," the secular party of Palestinian Authority (PA) president Mahmud Abbas."This agreement is very important and should boost efforts to end the divisions and encourage unity among Palestinians," he added.

The Islamist Hamas movement will on Thursday release a British reporter it arrested in its Gaza enclave last month, his lawyer said."The British reporter Paul Martin will be released today, in the next few hours," Sharhabil al-Zaim told AFP.A ceremony would be held marking the release at the home of Hamas leader Mahmud al-Zahar, Zaim added.Martin is the only foreigner to be arrested by Hamas since the Islamist group seized power in Gaza in June 2007 after driving out forces loyal to Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas.

The Islamist Hamas movement said on the eve of a summit on Tuesday in Egypt that the latest round of US-backed peace talks were "humiliating and degrading."Senior Hamas official Ismail Radwan said his movement remained vehemently opposed to the talks being carried out by Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas, whose forces were driven from Gaza when Hamas seized power in June 2007."(Abbas) is not authorised to negotiate on behalf of the Palestinian people and any agreements produced by these negotiations will not be binding on our people," he told AFP.

Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas Monday renewed calls for the Islamist Hamas movement to sign an Egyptian-drafted reconciliation document that would allow elections to take place."I hope that Hamas signs the Egyptian document so that we are able to move towards the organisation of elections," Abbas said after a meeting in Bucharest with Romanian President Traian Basescu.Abbas, who is scheduled to meet Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak on Thursday in Egypt, reiterated "the importance of inter-Palestinian reconciliation".

The Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas on Monday accused its rivals in the Fatah party of president Mahmud Abbas of sabotaging reconciliation efforts with a campaign of arrests in the West Bank."The arrests carried out by the security services of Mahmud Abbas and (premier) Salam Fayyad against symbols of national action and representatives of the Palestinian people are poisoning the atmosphere," it said.

A Palestinian militant was killed in an explosion at a training camp run by Hamas in the Gaza Strip on Monday, medics and the Islamist movement said.Another fighter was seriously wounded in the blast near the southern town of Khan Yunis, according to Muawiya Hassanein, the head of Gaza emergency services.Hamas said the man was killed during a "jihad mission," a phrase often used for accidental explosions.Hamas seized power in Gaza in June 2007 after driving out forces loyal to the Western-backed Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas in a week of bloody street battles.