GAZA, Dec. 2 (Xinhua) -- Visiting EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana on Saturday blamed the Palestinian Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas) for failure to form a national unity government.

    Solana told a news conference after a meeting with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas in Gaza that Abbas was not responsible for the failure, saying that "it was the responsibility of the others."

    "We believe that responsibility of this failure is not on the president who has been working day after night for weeks. It is the failure of the others," Solana said.

    Abbas convened a PLO Executive Committee meeting in the West Bank city of Ramallah on Friday and decided to freeze dialogue with Hamas on forming a new government, one day after he told visiting U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice that dialogue reached an impasse.

    Praising Abbas for his tremendous effort to form a unity government, Solana expressed support to Abbas and his decision. Palestinian factions had been exerting efforts to form a new coalition to replace incumbent Hamas-led one to lift financial and political sanctions imposed by the West since Hamas took power in late March.

    The West refuses to deal with Hamas as it failed to meet three demands of recognizing Israel, honoring previous peace accords and renouncing violence.