Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and Hamas yesterday appeared headed toward reconciliation talks one year after the Islamists seized power in Gaza causing a political and territorial split.

The US-backed Abbas on Wednesday unexpectedly called for talks with Hamas, which ousted his Fatah party from power in the Gaza Strip in June 2007 after deadly factional fighting.

Hamas, which both Israel and the United States consider a terrorist organisation, welcomed the call. The head of the Islamist government in Gaza, Ismail Haniya, was to respond formally in a televised speech lateron Thursday.

Abbas wants the talks to be based on a Yemeni-brokered reconciliation deal which Hamas and Fatah reached in March but failed to implement amid disagreements over its conditions.

Abbas had insisted the talks could only start after a return to the political status quo that existed before Hamas seized Gaza -- a condition the Islamists rejected.

Hie Palestinian president made no mention of this condition in a speech on Wednesday and tactfully refrained from referring to the Hamas takeover as a "coup, referring instead to "divisions."

"The appeal by president Abbas differs from those he had made previously which contained condi-

tions that prevented any dialogue," Hamas spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri said.

He noted that the Abbas proposal came at a time when peace talks between the Palestinians and Israel — which Hamas opposes --have made no progress despite both sides' stated intention of reaching a deal this year.

"There is no doubt the appeal by president Abbas is finked to the failure of the negotiations and the fact that national (Palestinian) unity is essential in order to confront Israel." Abu Zuhri said.

Al-Quds, the main Palestinian newspaper, agreed.

The appeal for national dialogue by president Abbas is no coincidence in these hard times for the Palestinian cause," Al-Quds said, citing an increase in Jewish settlement activity in the Israeli-occupied West Bank and the lack of tangible progress in peace negotiations.

In Wednesday's address marking the 41st anniversary of the 1967 war that ended with the occupation of Palestinian territories, including east Jerusalem, Abbas had harsh words for Israel.

Peace and security... cannot be attained through swords of occupation or bulldozers of settlements. The Israeli decisions to annex Jerusalem and build settlements in the city and in the West Bank, along with the separation Apartheid wall, are void and null,' he said.