The Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas) announced Saturday that it would take part in Palestinian parliamentary elections scheduled for July, a move ending a decade-old boycott.

Hamas plans to campaign "on the basis of sticking to the legitimate rights of the Palestinian people and protecting the program of resistance as a strategic choice until the occupation is swept away," Sheikh Mohamed Ghazal, a senior Hamas leader, told a news conference in the northern West Bank city of Nablus.

"Participating in the legislative elections on July 17 doesn't necessarily mean recognizing the Oslo Accords that Hamas rejected 10 years ago," he said.

The Hamas leadership will decide how to deal with Israel after the July vote, Ghazal said.

"Until then, anything can happen," he told reporters. "We stillhaven't decided whether to be a part of the Palestinian governmentand we haven't decided on the issue of Israel ... we will decide in the future whether to talk to them."

Top Hamas leader in Gaza Mahmoud al-Zahar confirmed the news, saying the Hamas decision will serve the highest interests of the Palestinian people.

Hamas, bent on Israel's destruction, boycotted the first Palestinian parliamentary elections in 1996 and the Jan. 9 presidential elections to choose a successor to former leader Yasser Arafat.

However, it took part in recent local elections in January and dealt a staggering blow to Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas' mainstream Fatah movement when it captured an overwhelming number of votes in the Gaza Strip.

Hamas recently agreed to abide by a ceasefire called by Abbas as a first step towards renewing deadlocked peace negotiations with Israel. Saturday's announcement comes ahead of a meeting of all Palestinian factions to be held in Cairo on Tuesday.

Abbas expected the Egypt-sponsored peace talk would lead to a ceasefire agreement among different Palestinian factions.

"The Cairo dialogue will be crowned by an agreement as a result of previous intensive efforts. This agreement will be declared at the meeting, and I will attend it," Abbas told a news conference in Gaza on Thursday.

"The meeting will be a conclusion of the dialogue we have been holding over the last four years," Abbas said, adding that "until now, there are no fundamental differences."

Hassan Khreishe, a deputy Palestinian Legislative Council (PLC)speaker, welcomed the Hamas decision to participate in the upcoming parliamentary elections. "The council considers the decision as a positive step, which will bring benefits to the highest interests of the Palestinian people," he said.

He also attributed the Hamas willingness to join elections to the recent PLC approval of a new Palestinian election law.

"Hamas participation in the upcoming parliamentary elections will end the status of monopoly of the legislative council by one party," Khreishe said, adding that "this will also create a kind of political inter-attraction."

Xinhua