Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas said today the formation of a government after Islamic group Hamas's landslide parliamentary election victory was still some way off and that talks could take a while.
Abbas arrived in Gaza late today and was expected to hold a first round of talks with Hamas leaders on Saturday, his aides said.
"We will discuss the results of the elections and certainly we may talk about the new government but it is still early to discuss its formation," Abbas said.
He added that before a government could be formed, parliament would have to be convened and the new deputies would have to be sworn in. Palestinian officials said that this could happen some time in the middle of February.
Abbas said that he expected Hamas, which won an overall majority of 74 seats in the 132-seat parliament would most likely be the party to form the next government.
Abbas insisted, however, that the new government would have to abide by the agreements signed by the Palestinian Authority.
"I have said from the beginning that I will ask the (new) government to respect the Authority's obligations," he said.
Defying international pressure, Hamas said earlier that it would never recognise Israel but might be willing to negotiate terms for a temporary truce with the Jewish state.
Speaking in Damascus, Khaled Meshaal, the top leader of Hamas made the offer to Israel.
The United States and European Union have demanded that Hamas renounce violence, disarm and change its charter calling for the destruction of the Jewish state or risk losing foreign aid to a Hamas-led Palestinian Authority.
Hamas leaders have said they might heed a truce with Israel as an interim measure that could include the establishment of a Palestinian state in the Gaza Strip and occupied West Bank, but would not abandon a long-term goal to destroy Israel.
"If you (Israel) are willing to accept the principle of a long-term truce then we will be ready to negotiate with you over the conditions of such a truce," Meshaal wrote.
Brushing aside Meshaal's suggestion as "verbal gymnastics", Israeli officials demanded Hamas unequivocally recognise Israel's right to exist and "abandon terrorism".
"Anything short of that will simply maintain the current situation in which the absolute majority of the community of nations determine Hamas to be a terrorist organisation, and as such, not a legitimate interlocutor for political negotiation," said Israeli Foreign Ministry spokesman Mark Regev.
Top Hamas leader in Gaza Ismail Haniyeh said Hamas's conditions for a long-term truce included Israel's withdrawal from the West Bank and a release of all Palestinian prisoners.