Members of Palestinian President Mr Yasser Arafat's Fatah faction will meet exiled Hamas leaders in Cairo next week to try to persuade the Islamic militants to end attacks in Israel, officials said today.
It would be the first high-level Fatah-Hamas meeting since 1995 and coincides with a rise in tension between the rivals after an outbreak in violence in the Gaza Strip over the killing of a Palestinian Authority police commander by a Hamas militant.
Fatah officials said the talks between the factional rivals would tackle a wide range of issues but focus on ending suicide bombings, which Mr Arafat has described as "terrorist" acts that have harmed the Palestinian cause for statehood.
"Fatah will ask Hamas to recognise the Palestinian Authority as the only authority in Palestinian areas [and] to stop suicide attacks inside Israel," an official said.
"Fatah will also ask Hamas to accept the establishment of a Palestinian state on areas occupied in 1967, the West Bank and Gaza, with East Jerusalem as its capital," he said.
Hamas officials were not available for comment.
Palestinian officials said the exiled leaders of Hamas were the decision-makers in the Islamic movement rather than those still in the territories.
Hamas has opposed Mr Arafat's interim 1994-95 peace accords with Israel, which gave Palestinians self-rule in West Bank cities and towns, and has attacked civilians in Israel in efforts to wreck the deals.