A senior Islamic Jihad (Holy War) official said on Tuesday that his movement will not join a national unity government to be formed within the coming two weeks.

Nafez Azzam told reporters in Gaza that although his faction had decided not to join the new government, "but we are interested in seeing the Palestinians united."

The Islamic Jihad boycotted the Palestinian legislative elections in January last year. It also refused to join the Hamas- led government that took office last March.

"An agreement reached (between Fatah and Hamas) in Mecca on forming a national unity government ended inter-Palestinian clashes," Azzam said.

He said that although his movement will not join any government, "we are ready to continue efforts to rebuild the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) in order to represent all Islamic and national factions."

Leaders of Fatah and Hamas agreed in Mecca, Saudi Arabia, last week to form a national unity government and rebuild the PLO in order to enable all factions to join its Executive Committee.

Meanwhile, Saraya al-Quds, the movement's armed wing, threatened to attack U.S. interests, if Secretary General of the Islamic Jihad Ramadan Shallah, who is in Syria, gets hurt.

It was reported that the U.S. State Department had offered a 5- million-U.S.-dollar bounty to anyone who hands over Shallah to the United States.

Source: Xinhua