Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas confirmed on Saturday that inter-Palestinian talks over forming a national unity government had failed.

Abbas made the remarks at a joint news conference with visiting German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier following their one-hour meeting in Gaza.

"We discussed various issues including a truce (with Israel) and efforts which have unfortunately failed to form a national unity government," Abbas said.

He called for more efforts by Germany, which is to take over the presidency of the European Union (EU) for six months starting from January 2007, to push stalled peace talks between Israel and the Palestinians.

Steinmeier, for his part, said that Germany will support Abbas in his efforts to make peace with Israel, adding that the people in Europe and Germany are closely following hardship faced by the Palestinians.

On Thursday, Abbas told visiting U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice that dialogue to form a new government reached an impasse.

The following day, Abbas chaired a PLO Executive Committee meeting in the West Bank city of Ramallah and decided to freeze the dialogue with Hamas.

Also on Saturday, Abbas met with Austrian Foreign Minister Ursula Plassnik in Gaza, who told reporters after the meeting that her country and the EU were working to support the Palestinian people to overcome their difficult living conditions.

The visits by European diplomats took place at a time when the Gaza Strip is witnessing a fragile ceasefire between the Palestinians and Israel. The two sides agreed on a truce on Nov. 26, ending a five-month-old Israeli offensive against the coastal strip.

The two foreign ministers did not meet with their Palestinian counterpart Mahmoud al-Zahar of the ruling Hamas movement. The West refuses to deal with Hamas as it insists on stance on Israel.

Source: Xinhua