RAMALLAH, West Bank (AFP) — Prime minister Salam Fayyad said on Sunday he was confident the Palestinians would form a "government of consensus" after he stepped down to pave the way for a unity cabinet.
"As I said yesterday after submitting my resignation to the president, we are confident that the dialogue in Cairo will lead to a government of consensus," he told reporters in the West Bank town of Ramallah.
He was referring to talks that rival Palestinian factions, including Hamas and Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas's Fatah, have been holding in Cairo under Egyptian auspices with a view to forming a national unity government.
Asked whether he could serve as premier in a unity government, Fayyad said he had submitted "a resignation letter and not a request for a new post."
Abbas meanwhile called for a national consensus government that "adheres to the commitments of the Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO)," a grouping pledged to a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and that does not include Hamas.
"This government must undertake to hold presidential and parliamentary elections before January 24, 2010," Abbas added, before meeting the Fatah delegation that will head to Cairo on Monday.
On Saturday, Fayyad said he was stepping down to try to pave the way for a national unity government that Palestinian factions hope to assemble by the end of March.
Fayyad's office said "we consider that the positive climate seen in the first round of dialogue offers an opportunity that has to be exploited to put an end to divisions and as a basis on which to reach unity and reconciliation."
Abbas said on Saturday he had asked Fayyad to stay on "until we see the results of the dialogue."
Palestinian factions met in Cairo on February 26 to launch a reconciliation process aimed at forming a power-sharing government in the wake of Israel's massive offensive against Gaza in December and January.
The factions agreed to form five committees to oversee creating a government that would supervise Gaza reconstruction and prepare for January 2010 elections. The committees are expected to meet in Cairo on Tuesday.
"Fayyad's resignation is a message to everyone that he is prepared to step down from his position so that the dialogue can succeed," said Qais Abdulkarim, an MP from the leftist Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine (DFLP).
"If there is no agreement on forming a national consensus government by the end of the month, the Palestinian leadership will decide at that time about the Fayyad government, which would in that case be expected to continue its work."
The politically independent Fayyad -- a former World Bank and International Monetary Fund official -- was appointed premier after Hamas's bloody takeover of Gaza in June 2007 from forces loyal to Western-backed Abbas.
In more than 18 months as prime minister Fayyad has won praise from Western and Israeli leaders for spearheading political and economic reforms and launching a security crackdown in the Israeli-occupied West Bank.
Ongoing tensions between the secular Fatah and Islamist Hamas movements rose after the Islamists swept Palestinian parliamentary elections in January 2006.
They steadily increased after Hamas formed a government in March that year, in large part because of an Israeli and Western boycott over Hamas's refusal to renounce violence and recognise Israel and past peace deals.
Tensions boiled over into deadly street battles in December 2006 after which the rivals agreed to form a unity cabinet in February 2007 under Saudi mediation.
That government was formed in March but collapsed three months later when Hamas seized Gaza.
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