Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas was set to meet exiled Hamas supremo Khaled Meshaal in Damascus on Sunday in a bid to end an often violent power struggle and form a government of national unity.
Chief Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat told a press conference that the off-again on-again meeting - the first between the two men since Hamas swept legislative elections a year ago - "will take place this evening."
Palestinian prime minister Ismail Haniya of Hamas also told reporters in Gaza: "The meeting will take place tonight, inshallah (God willing)."
The encounter is seen as key to resolving the long-running feud between Abbas's Fatah party and Hamas which boiled over into gunbattles and tit-for-tat attacks in December that left 30 people dead.
Earlier, Mussa Abu Marzuka, a senior Hamas offical in Damascus, had said there would be no meeting "because there is no understanding on a political formula proposed to the two sides."
The Western-backed Abbas arrived in Damascus on Saturday to try to hammer out a resolution to the political crisis and has held talks with President Bashar al-Assad and Vice President Faruq al-Shara, as well as leaders of militant groups in the capital.
Meshaal, one of Israel's most wanted men who lives in exile in Syria, is regarded as key to any deal.
Fatah and Hamas have tried for months to agree on a unity government in the hope of ending a boycott and aid freeze by the United States and the European Union that has crippled the Palestinian economy.
Washington and the EU consider Hamas to be a terrorist group and suspended direct financial aid to the Palestinians after it took power in March because the Islamists refuse to renounce violence or recognise Israel's right to exist.
Mustafa Barghuti, an independent Palestinian MP who was in Damascus for the talks, said some issues had been resolved but key questions remained outstanding.
"They've resolved many problems. There is still one problem - the political program for the government," he said on his return to Ramallah.
He said Abbas wants a unity government to "commit to" all agreements with Israel, while Hamas is insisting it simply "respect" past agreements.
The Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine also said in a statement from Gaza that Hamas, Fatah and other Palestinian factions would meet on Tuesday to resume talks over the unity government.
Last month's clashes between the rival factions erupted after Abbas called for early elections as a way of resolving the stand-off with Hamas, which vehemently rejected the move as an attempted coup and warned it could set off civil war.
On Saturday, Syria affirmed its commitment to Palestinian unity when Assad met Abbas, whose long-dominant Fatah party was dramatically trounced by Hamas in January 2006 elections.
Abbas's spokesman Nabil Amir said Assad had told Abbas that he was "attached to Palestinian national unity and ready to support anything that could help reinforce it, as well as efforts to find an adequate solution to the Palestinian problem."
It was the first meeting between Abbas and Assad since 2005, while Abbas has not seen Meshaal since Hamas's shock election win.
On Friday, Abbas received a boost when Israel released 100 million dollars in tax revenue collected on behalf of the Palestinians that had been withheld since Hamas took power.
The move, which involves only part of the estimated 600 million dollars in Palestinian customs duties witheld by Israel, followed a December summit between Abbas and Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert.
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