GAZA, March 18: Hamas completed forming a Palestinian cabinet on Saturday that will put loyal members of the Islamist group in charge of key ministries, including interior, foreign affairs and finance, Hamas officials said.

Hamas’s inability to win any coalition partners and its decision to appoint its own members to the top three ministries could bolster US and Israeli efforts to isolate the new government diplomatically and economically.

Aides to President Mahmoud Abbas said he had no intention of rejecting Hamas’s cabinet choices, but would pressure the militant group to make changes to its government agenda, which calls for resistance by any means to end Israeli occupation.

Hamas had planned to hand its cabinet line-up to Mr Abbas on Saturday. But the meeting with the president, whose Fatah group refused to join the Hamas-led government, was put off to Sunday.

Hamas, surprise winner of the Jan 25 parliamentary election, has refused to accept interim peace deals with Israel or to commit to seeking a negotiated settlement as demanded by Mr Abbas.

Mahmud Abbas could try to delay installation of a government until after Israel’s March 28 parliamentary election. A standoff over Hamas’s government programme could trigger a constitutional crisis, Palestinian officials have said.

“The cabinet is ready to be presented to President Mahmud Abbas in a meeting to be agreed with him,” Hamas spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri said.

The delay in the meeting with Mr Abbas could give Hamas extra time to try to find a coalition partner.

Only the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, whose leader was seized this week by Israeli forces from a West Bank prison, was still considering joining the government.

Mr Abbas’s Fatah and the other factions were under heavy US pressure not to join a coalition with Hamas.

FINANCE MINISTER: According to sources close to the deliberations, Hamas will name Omar Abdel-Razeq, a prominent West Bank economics professor and Hamas election official, to the post of finance minister.