Abbas rejects Hamas govt programme

Abbas "rejected the Hamas government programme which was presented to him by prime minister-designate Ismail Haniya because the principal political points in it have to be clear for the international community," the official said, asking not be identified.

They also "have to respect the decisions of the Palestine Liberation Organisation and the programme of President Abbas which is based on peace," he added.

"Negotiations are the way to peace between Israel and the Palestinians."

On February 21, Abbas formally tasked Haniya with forming the next cabinet following the radical Islamist faction's massive victory in the Palestinian general election on January 25.

Since then, Haniya has consulted with a number of factions, most notably Abbas's own Fatah, with whom it has still not been able to reach agreement on joining a Hamas-led coalition.

Abbas met with Haniya on Friday and received from him a letter spelling out Hamas's proposed programme. No details of the letter were revealed at the time, nor were they by the official speaking to AFP on Saturday.

Because of the delay in forming a government, Abbas said Friday that he was comfortable with Haniya taking two more weeks to do so.

Under the Palestinian Basic Law, Haniya has three weeks to form a government with a 14-day extension should he require extra time to nail down a line-up and win parliamentary approval for it.

That would give Haniya until March 28 -- the same day as a scheduled general election in Israel.

The incoming Palestinian government will mark the start of an unprecedented period of cohabitation between a Palestinian Authority president from Fatah and a Hamas-dominated cabinet.

Significant political differences separate Fatah, which is committed to a negotiated solution to the Middle East conflict with Israel, and Hamas, which champions the armed struggle and refuses to recognize the Jewish state's right to exist.

Hamas trounced Fatah at the ballot box on January 25, winning 74 out of the 132 seats in parliament against just 45 for Abbas's movement.

The election ended Fatah's monopoly of power since the Palestinian Authority was created in 1994.

Earlier Palestinian prime minister-designate Ismail Haniya on Friday dismissed a threat by Israel's acting premier as "confusion" created by the radical Islamist group Hamas's victory in January's election.

"There is no doubt that the overall success of the Palestinian (legislative) elections and the victory of the movement (Hamas) in particular have confused the Israeli occupation," Haniya said in an interview broadcast by Dubai-based Al-Arabiya television.