Egypt delays Palestinian unity talks after new feud

Egypt decided yesterday to delay Palestinian reconciliation talks it planned to host next week, an Egyptian source said, after Islamist Hamas threatened to boycott the meeting.

Tomorrow's planned talks were intended to end Hamas's conflict with the rival Fatah faction of President Mahmoud Abbas, whom Hamas officials blamed for failing to free jailed Hamas members and sympathisers.

Abbas said on Friday his forces only held criminals and not "political prisoners".

"Egypt decided to delay the Palestinian dialogue meetings," the Egyptian source told Reuters in Cairo.

Postponement of the talks coincided with a statement by Hamas's leader, Khaled Meshaal, that his group is ready to talk to Barack Obama as long as the US President-elect respects Hamas's "rights and options".

Visiting Israel in July, Obama played down the chances of negotiating with Hamas unless the group renounced violence and recognised Israel's right to exist. Under outgoing US President George Bush, Washington refused to talk to Hamas.

"...We are ready for dialogue with President Obama and with the new American administration with an open mind, on the basis that the American administration respects our rights and our options," Meshaal said in an interview with Sky News website from the Syrian capital Damascus.

A statement published by Egypt's MENA news agency said tomorrow's planned talks involving Hamas and Fatah would be postponed "until the necessary and proper conditions are achieved to secure its success."