Special report: Palestine-Israel Relations

    RAMALLAH, Nov. 27 (Xinhua) -- Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas on Thursday welcomed decision taken in Wednesday's meeting of Arab foreign ministers in Cairo.

    The Arabs blamed Abbas' rival, Hamas, on thwarting an Egyptian effort to broker a Palestinian national reconciliation and urged Abbas to stay in office until the reconciliation is achieved.

    "Hamas has blocked the dialogue that was due to start in Cairo but we will not give up," Abbas said in a news conference with his Italian counterpart Giorgio Napolitano in Bethlehem. "We support the Arab League's decision to resort to dialogue to resolve the crisis."

    Hamas, which seized Gaza Strip by force last year from pro-Abbas forces, slammed the Arab ministers meeting for not trying to lift an Israeli blockade on Gaza Strip and for not inviting Hamas to the meeting.

    Hamas rejected the Arab ministers' support of Abbas decision to stay in power as Hamas intends to announce his term over on January 9, 2009. Hamas also wants to put the speaker of its parliament as a transitional president.

    Hamas said it refused to join Cairo dialogue because pro-Abbas forces were cracking down against its supporters in West Bank, but Abbas said Thursday that "any problem can be resolved through dialogue, not through violence, rockets and fighting."

    He also said the split between the Palestinians affect the peace process that he and the Palestinian Authority have been involved in with Israel. Israel "takes our internal crisis as a pretext not to resume the negotiations and achieve any tangible progress."