Gaza: Mahmoud Abbas Seeks Deal With Hamas

Mahmoud Abbas, the Palestinian president, is urging pro-western Arab governments to promote reconciliation with Hamas, the Islamist movement that has controlled the Gaza Strip since last year.

Abbas was in Cairo yesterday for talks with President Hosni Mubarak on healing the inter-Palestinian rift and prospects for a ceasefire between Hamas and Israel in the Gaza Strip. On Sunday he flew to Saudi Arabia to ask King Abdullah to help.

Abbas appeared to change tack on Hamas last week when he called for "a national and comprehensive dialogue" with it, though aides insist he is still demanding that Hamas surrender control of the strip. Israel and the US oppose reconciliation between Fatah and Hamas.

The Islamist movement won elections in 2006 and seized Gaza last June in what many saw as a pre-emptive coup against Abbas's Fatah movement. Since then he has been negotiating with Israel, but has little to show for it. He said in Cairo that Israeli settlements in the West Bank remained the greatest barrier to peace.

Manuel Hassassian, the Palestinian ambassador to the UK, said dialog with Hamas was urgent. "Abbas is helpless. He has to get out of this situation by doing something dramatic," he told the Guardian. "Hamas wants to climb down from the tree they are up. They are totally isolated but the Israelis are empowering them by their incursions and their siege."

David Miliband, the foreign secretary, was meeting Abbas in Ramallah last night after flying in from Beirut.

Ismail Haniyeh, whom Abbas dismissed as prime minister of the short-lived Hamas-led unity government, played down the chances of speedy reconciliation.