Abbas to send Fatah envoys to Hamas-ruled Gaza

RAMALLAH, West Bank (Reuters) - Envoys from Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas's Fatah faction will visit the Gaza Strip on Tuesday to brief members there on his bid to cement reconciliation with Islamist Hamas, officials said.

Hikmat Zeid, a Fatah leader in the West Bank, told Reuters it would be the first mission by representatives of the secular and Western-backed faction to Gaza since Hamas took over the territory a year ago.

"We want to brief our brothers in Fatah about the president's initiative," Zeid said, adding that the delegation had no plans to meet the Hamas administration in Gaza.

A Hamas official in Gaza confirmed the planned Fatah visit.

Following a call by Abbas for reconciliation talks with Hamas leaders earlier this month, officials from the two factions met in Dakar, Senegal, in an effort to iron out differences.

The talks had restored "an atmosphere of trust and mutual respect" between the two factions, a joint statement signed by both sides said.

Zeid said efforts by Arabs were exerted to organize a meeting of all Palestinian factions, including Fatah and Hamas, in Cairo before the end of June.

Hamas ended more than 40 years of Fatah's unchallenged leadership of the Palestinian people with a victory in a parliamentary election in 2006. Hamas fighters went on to rout Fatah forces and take over the Gaza Strip in June 2007.

A year after Hamas wrested control of the coastal enclave after days of bitter fighting, Palestinians there remain deeply divided over the Islamists' contribution to their lives.

(Reporting by Mohammad Assadi; Editing by Stephen Weeks)