GAZA, April 25: The new session of Palestinian reconciliation talks starting in Cairo on Sunday is likely to be difficult, a spokesman for the Hamas movement said on Saturday.

“This session will be the most difficult taking account of the inflexibility” witnessed in earlier rounds, which prevented progress in the dialogue, Fawzi Barhum told AFP.

He said the new session of the Egypt-brokered talks is likely to open with a meeting between Hamas representatives and people from the Fatah movement of Palestinian Authority Ppresident Mahmud Abbas.

The two sides have struggled to make any progress in the negotiations that began in Cairo on March 10, aimed in particular at forming a unified Palestinian government.

Discussions were suspended on April 2 for three weeks and a few days later the Egyptian government proposed adjourning efforts to form a joint government and instead setting up a committee to coordinate two rival cabinets.

Some kind of an agreement is vital for the reconstruction of the Hamas-ruled Gaza strip, devasted by a Israeli offensive from December 27 to January 18 which left more than 1,400 Palestinians dead and caused widespread devastation to buildings and infrastructure in the enclave.

The international community has ruled out talking to Hamas unless it recognises Israel and gives up violence. It has refused to channel reconstruction aid via the movement.—AFP