A senior Palestinian official said Saturday that the Palestinian National Authority (PNA) sends only one foreign minister and not two to the upcoming Arab summit to be held on March 28-29 in the Sudanese capital Khartoum.

Yasser Abed Rabbo, a member of Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO)'s executive committee, made the remarks in an interview to the "Voice of Palestine" radio.

The Palestinian delegation, headed by President Mahmoud Abbas, would meet with Egyptian president Hossni Mubarak and Intelligence Minister Omar Suleiman on Sunday in Egypt and then it will head to Khartoum for the Arab summit, he added.

His remarks came when media reports said that Washington has exerted to the Palestinian leadership not to let Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas)'s delegation to join the Khartoum summit.

Denying the reports, Abed Rabbo explained that "till the moment there's no new Palestinian government, the present foreign minister is still following up work and we can't send one delegation with two foreign ministers."

Abed Rabbo clarified that the situation would continue as it is until the present Palestinian government ends its duty and the new one gets the confidence.

However, if Hamas movement had formed its cabinet earlier before the time of holding the Arab summit then the situation would be different, though Hamas took its time to reach the final formation of its cabinet, Abed Rabbo was quoted as saying.

"We want from the summit to assert on the Arab peace initiative, roadmap plan of peace and refusing the unilateral steps in which Israel seeks to impose claiming that there's no Palestinian partner," he said.

He added that the Israeli side has been using the excuse that there's no Palestinian leadership since the results of the Palestinian legislative elections, while Hamas achieved victory in the elections.

Arab foreign ministers started their two-day meeting in Khartoum on Saturday morning, while the Arab summit would be held next Tuesday.

Source: Xinhua