Hamas says unlikely to attend Cairo unity meeting

DAMASCUS (Reuters) - The Islamist group Hamas is unlikely to take part in an Egyptian-sponsored Palestinian reconciliation conference on Sunday, a top Hamas official said.

Palestinian sources said Hamas could announce a boycott of the Cairo conference, intended to end its factional conflict with President Mahmoud Abbas's Fatah group, as early as Friday because Egypt had refused to put more Hamas proposals on the agenda.

"The atmosphere is not promising and all the signs are not encouraging for Hamas to participate," Hamas politburo member Izzat al-Rishq told Reuters after a meeting with allied groups in the Syrian capital on Thursday.

Egypt has invited Hamas and Fatah to the meeting, along with smaller Palestinian factions, to try to heal a rivalry that burst into open conflict after Hamas seized control of the Gaza Strip last year and Abbas embarked on peace talks with Israel.

"We are still making contacts and leaving a chance for our demands to be met. Egypt must put pressure on Abbas to provide the conditions to make the dialogue a success," Rishq said in Damascus, where he and other Hamas leaders live in exile.

Leaders from Hamas, Islamic Jihad, the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine-General Command and al-Saeqa -- groups opposed to Abbas -- met in Damascus on Thursday to discuss participation in the meeting, Rishq said.

Hamas wants the conference agenda to leave out issues such as extending Abbas's presidential term, which expires in January, unless this is part of a comprehensive settlement, and giving him a new mandate to negotiate with Israel.

PRISONERS

Rishq repeated Hamas's position that it would boycott the conference unless Abbas released around 400 Hamas members and sympathizers from West Bank jails run by Fatah.

With Israeli and Western support, Abbas's forces have been cracking down on Hamas members in the West Bank in a campaign he describes as aiming to restore law and order.

"These 400 prisoners are living a human tragedy equaling the brutality of Israeli occupation forces. The Cairo dialogue is dancing in the wind. It risks failure if the arrests continue," Rishq said.

Fatah said Hamas forces had arrested dozens of its supporters in the Gaza Strip on Thursday in what it described as an attempt to sabotage the Egyptian reconciliation effort.

Nine of the detainees, including a senior Fatah lawmaker, were released but about 40 remained in custody, Fatah sources said.

Previous Arab efforts to end the schism between Hamas and Fatah have met with failure, leading to more bloodshed.

The two rivals disagree on how to approach talks with Israel and how to resolve the dispute that led to Hamas taking control of the tiny but densely populated Gaza Strip.

Hamas routed Fatah forces from Gaza in June 2007. In response, Abbas dismissed the Hamas-led Palestinian government and appointed a new administration backed by the West in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, where Fatah holds sway.

(Editing by Kevin Liffey)