KEY POINTS:
UNITED NATIONS - The Palestinians could announce a national unity government as early as Monday night (Tue NZT), led by "an independent technocrat" who was from neither the Hamas nor Fatah movements, a top Palestinian diplomat said.
The new prime minister would be selected jointly by President Mahmoud Abbas' Fatah group and current Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh's Hamas, and it would not be Haniyeh, said Riyad Mansour, the Palestinian observer at the United Nations.
In the new cabinet, "there will be individuals with technical skills from Hamas, from Fatah, from the other groups and independents, but it would take the form of a national unity government with a technocrat flavour," Mansour told a news conference at UN headquarters.
The Palestinian Authority, backed by Arab governments, has also called on the UN Security Council to convene an emergency session to discuss mounting violence in Gaza, Mansour said.
He said the Palestinians wanted the council to adopt a resolution calling for a mutual cease-fire in Gaza and for UN observers to be sent into the area to enforce the cease-fire agreement, as was done in southern Lebanon after the 34-day war between Israel and Lebanon's Hizbollah that ended in August.
Abbas spoke to UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan over the weekend to discuss the deteriorating situation and wrote to the Security Council on Monday promising to do his utmost to control the situation if the council acted, Mansour said.
The escalation of violence in Gaza was an obstacle to the formation of a unity government, Mansour said, accusing Israel of intensifying its military actions in the past whenever the Palestinians neared agreement on a compromise government, "as if they do not really want to find a solution on this issue."
Abbas and Haniyeh held talks on the formation of a unity government earlier on Monday in Gaza City, but broke off for the night. Despite the lateness of the hour, however, Mansour said a deal could come as soon as Monday night or Tuesday.
Formation of a unity government is crucial to the Palestinians as it could lead to an easing of sanctions imposed on them after Hamas won a big election victory in January.
Western donors have limited aid to the Palestinians over Hamas' refusal to recognize Israel and reject violence.
At the same time, Israel has restricted access to Gaza and withheld customs and tax receipts in retaliation for Palestinian militants' shooting of rockets into civilian areas.
A Palestinian woman on Monday blew herself up near Israeli troops in a Gaza town where Israeli forces last week had killed two women acting as human shields.
The sanctions have crippled the Palestinian economy as well as its civil service, including security personnel, as little money is available to pay public employees' salaries.
Concerning the possible deployment of UN observers to Gaza, Mansour said the Palestinians had not produced a draft resolution to give the 15-nation council, so could not say how many observers they would like or how a cease-fire would work.
The best approach for now was to end the fighting and begin political negotiations "to find a peaceful solution to this conflict," he said.
There was no immediate reaction from the Security Council, where Middle East matters often run into strong opposition from the United States, which is Israel's closest ally and has veto power over council actions.
- REUTERS
