GAZA, Aug. 3 (Xinhua) -- Fatah leaders on Monday agreed to postpone voting for Gaza representatives in the movement's decision-making bodies for two months due to Hamas' restrictions, officials said.

    The decision was made after Islamic Hamas movement, which controls the Gaza Strip, has prevented Fatah officials and members from traveling to the West Bank to attend the general convention of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas's Fatah party.

    During the general conference, due to be held Tuesday in Bethlehem, more than 2,000 Fatah members will elect a new central committee and a revolutionary council for the movement while Gaza candidates will be elected later, said Ibraheem Abu al-Najja, a Fatah leader in Gaza.

    "We have agreed to go ahead with holding the general conference without Fatah members of Gaza and to append them to the central committee and the revolutionary council after two months," he told Xinhua.

    Abu al-Najja had been in the West Bank but has just returned to the Gaza Strip "to join the Fatah people who were banned from heading for the West Bank."

    He added that Fatah is studying "several suggestions" to deal with Hamas' ban "but this will not affect the date of the general congress."

    Arab and Turkish mediation efforts have failed to persuade Hamas to let more than 400 of the Gaza-based Fatah members out. Hamas says it will change its mind only when pro-Abbas forces stop cracking down against Hamas supporters in the West Bank.

    The standoff is the latest between Hamas and Fatah since the Islamic movement routed pro-Abbas forces and seized control of Gaza by force in June 2007.

Special Report: Palestine-Israel Conflicts