RAMALLAH: Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas said on Saturday he expects a joint government of his Fatah party and Hamas will be announced on June 2, completing a unity deal the sides agreed last month.
Meeting with French peace activists in the West Bank city of Ramallah, where his limited self-rule government is based, Abbas said: "We will announce the government the day after tomorrow, it will be formed of technocrats and independents."
None of the unity government's members would belong to either the Western-backed Fatah, which rules the Israeli-occupied West Bank, or Islamist Hamas, which holds sway in the Gaza Strip, Abbas said.
Hamas spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri said he could not confirm that all the details would be completed by Monday.
Both parties see benefits to a unity pact, though disagreements have blocked them from achieving such a government for years. The deal would heal a rift that opened between Fatah and Hamas in 2007 when Hamas seized control of Gaza.
Under a strict blockade imposed by neighbours Israel and Egypt, Hamas struggles to prop up Gaza's economy and pay its 40,000 employees. Abbas, for his part, wants to shore up his domestic support since the collapse of US-brokered peace talks with Israel last month.
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