GAZA CITY, March 15: Palestinians unveiled a new unity cabinet on Thursday they hope will usher in a new era by stopping months of deadly factional violence and ending a crippling international aid boycott.

But Israeli immediately said it would not deal with the new coalition, which unites the radical Islamist Hamas movement with president Mahmud Abbas's secular Fatah party and was formed after weeks of wrangling over the lineup.

“We hope that this government will mark the start of a new era and enable us to turn the page,” prime minister-designate Ismail Haniya of Hamas said after submitting the list of ministers to Abbas.

“We are going to do everything in our power to strengthen national unity, obtain a lifting of the siege imposed on the Palestinian people and improve our links with the international commuinity.” The Palestinian parliament is expected to vote on the 25-member cabinet on Saturday.

The international Quartet for Middle East peace -- the European Union, Russia, the United Nations and the United States -- slapped an aid freeze on the Palestinian government a year ago when Hamas, considered a terror group by Israel and the West, came to power.

It has insisted that the Palestinian government renounce violence, recognise Israel and agree to abide by past peace deals for the flow of funds to resume, and it was not yet clear whether it would modify the approach.

Israel rejected any contacts with the new government, denying earlier statements by a senior government official that it would be ready to work with it under certain conditions.

“We will not recognise or deal with this government or with members of this government and we expect the international community to stand firm in their demand to adopt the three principles,” government spokeswoman Miri Eisin said.

Israel froze ties with the Palestinian Authority after a shock January election win by Hamas -- which does not recognise the Jewish state's right to exist -- and has been dealing solely with the moderate Abbas.

The internationally drafted peace roadmap calls for the creation of a viable Palestinian state alongside a secure Israel, but has been largely dormant since its launch in 2003.

Earlier a senior Israeli official said that if Gaza militants released a soldier captured nearly nine months ago and stop firing rockets at the Jewish state, “Israel will use a pragmatic approach that will allow working with the government.” The official said Israel feared cracks were appearing in the Quartet over whether to maintain the aid boycott.

“There is a certain erosion in the international approach towards the Palestinians, especially in Europe,” the official said. “Europe's stance will now be less clear-cut. We are entering a period of unclarity.” The EU said it would stick to its wait-and-see stance until it had a chance to study the new cabinet lineup.

“As we have said many times we are going to wait and see... we have to wait and see the list,” EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana said in Germany.

Fatah and Hamas agreed at a summit in Mecca last month to form a unity government to end the power struggle, but stopped short of agreeing to meet Western conditions for resuming aid.

Under the terms of the power-sharing agreement, Hamas has 12 cabinet seats and Fatah six, with the rest coming from either independents or small parties.

Independent or third-party candidates will occupy the influential posts of foreign, finance and interior ministers.—AFP