Toni Blair, the international Quartet envoy said on Sunday that achieving an inter-Palestinian reconciliation would ease the measures to help the population in the Gaza Strip.

Blair made the remarks at a news conference held in Ramallah after holding talks with acting Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad.

The national Palestinian unity "is so essential in order to redevelop the Gaza Strip," Blair told the reporters.

"The unity among the Palestinians is important and without it, it will be so difficult to talk about redeveloping and rebuilding the Gaza Strip," said Blair, calling on the Palestinians to form anew national unity government.

He added that "a government based on mutual understanding would lead to real unity and then to an independent Palestinian state," warning "otherwise we would get back to the first quarter."

More than two years of rivalry and disputes between Fatah, which rules the West Bank, and Hamas, which rules the Gaza Strip, might block donations to rebuild what had been destroyed during the Israeli offensive on the enclave.

Israel had carried out a 22-day large-scale military offensive on the Gaza Strip that ended a week ago, leaving some 1,400 Palestinians dead and 5,500 injured.

Meanwhile, around 5000 houses, in addition to mosques, government and security installations, schools and universities were destroyed.

However, Hamas leaders were refusing that the Palestinian National Authority (PNA) in Ramallah will be in charge of receiving the world's donation to rebuild Gaza. It said it would form an independent committee to be in charge.

Source: Xinhua