The Islamist group Hamas opened talks Monday with other militant factions about forming a new Palestinian Government, and assured them it would not crack down on their fighters despite international pressure.
Election winner Hamas said its goal was to establish as broad a coalition as possible as it faced a halt in vital tax funds from Israel and a threatened boycott by major powers if it refused to renounce violence and recognize the Jewish state.
In talks with one of the factions, Hamas again signaled its readiness for a long-term truce if Israel withdraws from lands it occupied in the 1967 war.
But the head of Israel's Shin Bet internal security service, Yuval Diskin, said a truce alone would be unacceptable. Diskin called a Hamas-run state a long-term "strategic threat."
With an Israeli helicopter gunship circling overhead, a Hamas delegation huddled with leaders of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), a group involved in a more than 5-year Palestinian uprising.
After the meeting, a top PFLP leader, Rabah Muhana, hinted the group would agree to join a Hamas-led government, calling the outcome of the talks "positive."
Another PFLP leader, Kayed al-Ghoul, said Hamas leaders "promised that after they assume power they will not arrest fighters and they will free fighters in Palestinian jails."
Hamas has rebuffed international calls to disarm its own fighters.
The head of Hamas's parliamentary bloc, Mahmoud al-Zahar, was upbeat about the chances of bringing the PFLP into Hamas's coalition.
He said Hamas would form a new government within two weeks. "It will take maximum two weeks, maximum," Zahar told reporters.
Hamas also held talks with Islamic Jihad, a group responsible for several suicide bombings in Israel, and planned to meet the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine (DFLP).
Hamas also planned to hold talks later on Monday local time with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, whose long-dominant Fatah faction was trounced by Hamas in the parliamentary election on January 25.
Salah al-Bardaweel, spokesman for Hamas's parliamentary bloc, said Hamas would officially present Abbas with its choice for prime minister, Ismail Haniyeh.
But it was unclear whether Hamas, which has largely observed a ceasefire since last year, would succeed in bringing all of the other militant groups on board. Islamic Jihad, whose West Bank commander was killed overnight by Israeli troops, was expected to turn down Hamas's offer to join the government.
Witnesses outside the house where the talks took place said an Israeli military helicopter was seen circling overhead. The Israeli military declined to comment.
Israel sought to play down the outcome of Monday's talks between militant factions. "The exact composition of the incoming Palestinian government is of lesser importance," said Israeli Foreign Ministry spokesman Mark Regev.
"The essential fact is that the incoming government will be dominated by Hamas, the ministers will be appointed by a Hamas-led parliament and it will be Hamas that will be conducting the orchestra."
(China Daily February 21, 2006)
