GAZA, June 3 (Xinhua) -- Despite an announcement of a partial salary payment to 40,000 employees, the Hamas-led government is still short of paychecks to pay the remaining government employees, which worsened Hamas' rule in the Palestinian territories as an ultimatum for referendum ends on Sunday.

    PAYCHECK SHORTAGE

    Palestinian Finance Minister Omer Abdel Razeq announced on Saturday that 40,000 government employees who earn less than 350 U.S. dollars will be paid one-month salary on Monday.

Abdel Razeq also said that the government would pay advances to the remaining 125,000 employees later because the cabinet still has no money to pay them now.

    It has been over two months since the Hamas-led government came in power with a severe financial crisis imposed by major donor countries, due to Hamas' refusal to meet their conditions, namely recognition of Israel, renouncement of violence and acceptance of previous peace deals.

    Hamas has collected some financial aid from Islamic countries in the past few months, but the money was suspended because banks were warned of possible sanctions by the United States if they deal with money transfer to the Hamas-led government.

A bank official said that his bank didn't receive any formal letter from the government to begin paying salaries to parts of the employees.

    "The mechanism to pay the salaries is not yet in place, so some questions need to be answered," said the bank official, wondering if the financial ministry would issue the paychecks or transfer money to the banks.

    He clarified that the banks' reservations were due to fears of American sanctions.

    Meanwhile, a Hamas lawmaker suggested a committee to coordinate transferring money to President Abbas' account and pay the employees via Abbas' office.

    In a written statement, Jamal Nassar, head of the financial committee in the Palestinian Legislative Council, said that he discussed the suggestion with Abbas' aide.

    Nassar added that the Hamas finance minister had no objection regarding the matter.

    The Hamas-led government had earlier opposed a similar plan, accusing Abbas of trying to bypass the financial ministry. "We are ready to pressurize the cabinet and push it to accept this initiative," said Nassar, affirming that the overdue payment became intolerable.

    REFERENDUM THREAT

    Along with the paycheck shortage, the Hamas-led government is also facing a political ordeal, because an ultimatum issued by Abbas, which presses Hamas to either accept a prisoners proposal on making peace with Israel or face a referendum within 40 days, ends on June 4.

    The proposal, or the Document of National Accordance, was prepared by prominent Palestinian prisoners earlier in May, which called for the establishment of an independent Palestinian state in the territories Israel captured in the 1967 Middle East War.

That proposal was viewed as an implicit recognition of Israel, which is against Hamas' political charter -- destruction of Israel.

Abbas announced on May 25 on the occasion of a national dialogue among Palestinian factions that if the factions including Hamas fail to agree the proposal in 10 days, he would order a referendum, which definitely threatens Hamas rule, observers said.

On Saturday, Palestinian Deputy Prime Minister Nasser al-Deenal-Sha'er said that his Hamas government didn't oppose the referendum in principle, but the problem was that the time and the way of ordering a referendum.

    "The referendum is always ordered on one issue, so ordering a referendum on 18 articles can't be done," he told a news conference.

    However, Al-Sha'er hoped that the factions could reach a deal and avoid the referendum.

    "It's unlawful to hold a referendum on decisive issues like the right of return. The document could be a ground for dialogue, so we prefer to reach an agreement through national dialogue," said Al-Sha'er. Enditem