The Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas) on Sunday said inter-Palestinian unity and reconciliation talks can not be open forever.

"We should not always go backward, we must start from wherever we ended," said Fawzi Barhoum, a spokesman for Hamas in Gaza Strip. "So, the dialogue can not be open forever."

The second round of the talks, that aims at reconciling Hamas and president Mahmoud Abbas' Fatah movement, will start at the beginning of April, according to Barhoum, in Cairo.

"We have priorities, restoring the Palestinian unity and empowering our internal front," Barhoum said, calling on Fatah "to get away from the foreign agenda and the Zionist-American decisions."

The factions agreed on forming a transitional government and holding elections by January 2010 to boost the reconciliation, but they failed to agree on the government's platform and the electoral law.

"We, Hamas and most of the factions, emphasized that the government must not be formed according to the American standards," Barhoum continued. "Fatah must shoulder the responsibility for engaging itself with security and political agreements with the U.S. and Israel, not the Palestinian factions."

Fatah demands the government to commit itself to the Palestinian Liberation Organization's (PLO) peace agreements but Hamas firmly rejects, saying these agreements hold recognition of Israel.

Source:Xinhua