Special report: Palestine-Israel Relations    

    GAZA, Nov. 19 (Xinhua) -- Palestinian Islamic Hamas movement on Wednesday denied reports that it had accepted to extend President Mahmoud Abbas' term in exchange for joining the presidency's institutions.

    "Extending Abbas' term is a pure legal issue that should be discussed in accordance with the law," said Hamas spokesman Fawzi Barhoum while denying the reports.

    Barhoum made the denial as some media reports quoted Arab diplomatic sources as saying that Hamas does not mind extending Abbas' term if the Islamic movement shares the presidency's institutions with Abbas' Fatah party.

    Abbas' term as a president ends in January next year and Hamas insisted that the speaker of the Hamas-dominated parliament would be the president for 60 days that must witness the holding of new presidential elections according to the Palestinian basic law.

    But holding elections would be impossible due to the political split between the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip and the Fatah-ruled West Bank.

    Hamas has boycotted an Egyptian initiative to hold a national reconciliation dialogue, but Barhoum reiterated that Hamas will join the dialogue when pro-Abbas forces stop crackdown against its supporters in the West Bank.

    Meanwhile, Hamas denounced that the pro-Abbas forces arrested 17 of its supporters in a new clampdown in the West Bank, which were politically motivated.