Palestinian interior minister seeks to calm factions

GAZA (Reuters) - Palestinian academic Hani al-Qawasmi, a political novice chosen as interior minister for a new unity cabinet, said on Thursday his priority would be to end the factional fighting that has plagued the Gaza Strip.

A business graduate with no experience in security matters, Qawasmi, 49, told Reuters he was confident he could handle a job that involved overseeing rival Palestinian forces.

"We will cooperate with all parties, especially with the brothers in Hamas and Fatah and the rest of the factions to reach an honorable and satisfactory situation," Qawasmi said.

The difficulties he faces were illustrated by volleys of gunfire heard from his Gaza home as Fatah militants marked the funeral of a comrade killed in clashes with Hamas rivals.

More than 90 Palestinians have been killed since December in clashes that had raised fears of a slide into civil war before Fatah and Hamas agreed to form a national unity government during Saudi-sponsored talks in Mecca on February 8.

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh chose Qawasmi for the hotly-contested portfolio as a political independent not affiliated to either of their factions, as required by the Mecca agreements.

After weeks of haggling over ministerial posts, Abbas and Haniyeh plan to present their agreed cabinet list to the Palestinian parliament for approval on Saturday.

Qawasmi, a father of five and scion of one of the largest Palestinian clans in the Israeli-occupied West Bank city of Hebron, is now a director in the chief justice's office.

He said his lack of affiliation with Fatah or Hamas would be an asset in his new job.

"I am an independent. All the Palestinian people and the factions are my people. There is no way I will work with one side at the expense of the other," he declared.

"We are in an era of national reconciliation and national agreement among all the parties of the Palestinian people."

The interior minister oversees Palestinian security services, though in practice most answer either to Abbas's Fatah faction or the newly-created Executive Force of Hamas.

Qawasmi said it was too early to say how he would handle Fatah's demands to disband or integrate the Executive Force into the overall security apparatus, dominated by Fatah. Hamas says this can only happen in the context of broader security reforms.