BEIRUT, Jan. 15 (Xinhua) -- Lebanese President Michel Suleiman called on Friday for reconciliation among Palestinian factions, the president's office said in a statement.

    When meeting with Hamas Chief Khaled Mashaal in the presidential palace near Beirut, Suleiman said that "reconciliation will have a positive influence on the peace process," noted the statement.

    Hamas, which seized Gaza strip by force in 2007, had rejected an Egyptian proposal and raised reservations concerning elections and the reform of Palestine Liberation Organization as the two issues appeared on the paper in the long-term measures to boost the reconciliation with Fatah.

    Hamas Chief also met with Lebanese Prime Minister Saad Hariri. Following the talks, he said he discussed with the PM the civil rights of Palestinians in Lebanon.

    The UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine refugees (UNRWA) lists nearly 400,000 Palestinian refugees in Lebanon. Most of them live in 12 refugee camps across the country.

    Local al-Mustaqbal news site quoted Mashaal saying that Hariri advised him "to quickly complete the inter-Palestinian reconciliation."

    He asserted that the "Palestinian arms outside refugee camps have to be discussed in calm way as the arms of the Palestinians in Lebanon does not have internal purposes but to be used against the Israeli enemy."

    On Dec. 26, a car bomb was exploded near Hamas' office in Dahiyeh, Beirut's southern suburb and Hezbollah's stronghold. Two Hamas members were killed. No group claimed responsibility to the blast.