by Saud Abu Ramadan

    GAZA, March 10 (Xinhua) -- Leaders of 13 Palestinian factions, including rival Fatah and Hamas movements, are convening in Cairo for ten-day marathon dialogue talks to decide on five different issues, mainly forming a unity government for both Gaza and the West Bank.

    The five different issues are: forming a new government, rehabilitating the security forces, preparing for presidential and legislative elections, reforming Palestine Liberation Organization(PLO) and the reconciliation.

    Among these issues, the most important one is to find a solution for forming a new unity government, instead of having two ones: one is a deposed Hamas that rules Gaza and one is a caretaker that rules the West Bank and pays the salaries of 70,000Gaza civil and security servants.

    Palestinian observers in Gaza expressed less optimism, believing that the more than two-year-old differences among the Palestinian factions, mainly between Fatah and Hamas, can't be resolved within ten days.

    Osama Abu Jahal, a 34-year-old Gaza observer said, "We were delighted to hear two weeks ago that the factions agreed to sit and talk in Egypt to resolve their disputes.... This is beautiful,but when it comes to going deep into details, I believe it will bemore difficult and complicated to agree on everything."

    The differences on forming a new unity government are based on who will be the coming new prime minister, and who are the members in the cabinet in order to resolved two-year-old complicated problems.

    Currently, Hamas refused to form a technocrat kind of a government, while President Abbas likes the idea. Hamas wants to have at least 10 portfolios out of 24, and name the new prime minister. Fatah and other factions refused Hamas' idea and said the new government should include all political and professional experts.

    The complicated situation in the Palestinian territory began after Hamas won the last 2006 legislative elections, and had a majority in the parliament, better known as the Palestinian Legislative Council (PLC), and it formed a pure Hamas government. However, this government was embargoed by the international community because Hamas refused to recognize Israel.

    In February 2007, Fatah and Hamas agreed in Mecca, Saudi Arabia,to form a unity government that was headed by Hamas but it was also not recognized by the world because Hamas insisted that it won't recognize Israel.

    The unity government didn't live longer than three months, whenHamas took control of the Gaza Strip violently and ousted President Abbas security forces. Abbas in return deposed the Hamas-led unity government and assigned a caretaker government headed by economist Salam Fayyad.

    "I believe that both Hamas and Fatah had wasted the time of thePalestinian people since they had agreed in Mecca to form a unity government in 2007. Now, if they don't pay attention to their former differences, I believe they will repeat the same mistakes,"said Salim Abu Thuraya, a Gaza academic.

    Palestinian sources close to the dialogue said there are three candidates for the post of prime minister. They are the famous business man Monib el-Masri, the Hamas-supported independent lawmaker Jamal al-Khodari and resigning prime minister of the caretaker government Salam Fayyad.

    "Hamas doesn't like or prefer Fayyad, Fatah would also reject to name al-Khodari as a prime minister because he is loyal to Hamas, so Egypt would intervene and say 'Okay guys, if you don't accept the two figures, why don't you choose el-Masri," said Abu Thuraya.

    Head of the People's Party Bassam el Salhi has another solutionto the differences, suggesting to have an independent prime minister. "But if they fail to agree on the figure, the president (Mahmoud Abbas) can be the new prime minister and he chooses a deputy for him."

    Abu Thuraya said that the Palestinians, mainly in the Gaza Strip, had suffered a lot due to these "deep differences," and "ifthey (Fatah and Hamas) don't agree on the new government, I believe our suffering will last forever."

    Meanwhile, Abu Jahal said, "All of us are praying for them in order to end this status of hatred and split between Gaza and the West Bank."