Xinhua - English

Special report:Internal situation in Palestine

GAZA, Dec. 2 (Xinhua) -- Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas confirmed on Saturday that inter-Palestinian talks over forming anational unity government had failed.

Abbas made the remarks at a joint news conference with visiting German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier following their one-hour meeting in Gaza.

"We discussed various issues including a truce (with Israel)and efforts which have unfortunately failed to form a national unity government," Abbas said.

He called for more efforts by Germany, which is to take over the presidency of the European Union (EU) for six months starting from January 2007, to push stalled peace talks between Israel and the Palestinians.

Steinmeier, for his part, said that Germany will support Abbas in his efforts to make peace with Israel, adding that the people in Europe and Germany are closely following hardship faced by the Palestinians.

On Thursday, Abbas told visiting U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice that dialogue to form a new government reached an impasse.

The following day, Abbas chaired a PLO Executive Committee meeting in the West Bank city of Ramallah and decided to freeze the dialogue with Hamas.

Also on Saturday, Abbas met with Austrian Foreign Minister Ursula Plassnik in Gaza, who told reporters after the meeting that her country and the EU were working to support the Palestinian people to overcome their difficult living conditions.

The visits by European diplomats took place at a time when the Gaza Strip is witnessing a fragile ceasefire between the Palestinians and Israel. The two sides agreed on a truce on Nov.26, ending a five-month-old Israeli offensive against the coastal strip.

The two foreign ministers did not meet with their Palestinian counterpart Mahmoud al-Zahar of the ruling Hamas movement. The West refuses to deal with Hamas as it insists on stance on Israel.

GAZA, Dec. 2 (Xinhua) -- Visiting EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana on Saturday blamed the Palestinian Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas) for failure to form a national unity government.

Solana told a news conference after a meeting with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas in Gaza that Abbas was not responsible for the failure, saying that "it was the responsibility of the others."

"We believe that responsibility of this failure is not on the president who has been working day after night for weeks. It is the failure of the others," Solana said.

Hamas holds Abbas responsible for failure of national dialogue

GAZA, Dec. 2 (Xinhua) -- A Hamas official on Saturday blamed Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas' aides and his Fatah party for the failure of the unity government talks.

Khalil al-Haiya, a Hamas lawmaker, also threatened that the ruling party would not tolerate "any measures violating the law or revolting against the Palestinian legitimacy and democracy for the benefit of America or the Jewish state."

Palestinian national dialogue frozen, crisis resurfaces

GAZA, Dec. 2 (Xinhua) -- Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas decided to freeze talks with the Hamas-led government on forming a national unity one, in a sign of an intensifying power struggle between Islamic militants and moderate President Mahmoud Abbas.

The decision was followed by angry exchanges of blames between Hamas and leaders of Abbas' Fatah Party.

Hamas slams PLO decision to stop forming national unity government

GAZA, Dec. 2 (Xinhua) -- The ruling Hamas movement slammed on Saturday a decision by President Mahmoud Abbas and the Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO) to stop talks on forming a unity government.

"We are sorry for this unjust decision which was a shock for every Palestinian waiting the birth of national unity government," Hamas spokesman Fawzi Barhoom told Voice of Palestine radio.