Palestinian Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh hinted on Friday he would step aside and not head a unity government Hamas is trying to forge with the Fatah faction as a way to lift a Western embargo.
Haniyeh said he hoped the unity cabinet could be in place within three weeks, ending months of intermittent talks and internal violence that has raised fears of civil war.
The prime minister, a senior leader of the group, told worshippers at a mosque in the Gaza Strip that Western powers did not want him to be part of the new administration. "(They have) one condition, that the siege will not be lifted unless the prime minister is changed," Haniyeh said.
"When the issue is like this, the siege on one hand, the prime minister on the another ... I prefer the siege be lifted and the suffering ended."
Haniyeh said dialogue with Fatah and other parties would resume next week after talks were suspended in the wake of the Israeli artillery shelling of the town of Beit Hanoun in northern Gaza on Wednesday that killed 19 civilians.
The toll rose after one man died of his wounds on Friday, hospital officials said.
"We have laid down the rules and the basis for the formation of a national unity government. I hope that within two to three weeks this issue will be concluded," Haniyeh said.