arch/ive/ief (2000 - 2005)

"To our regret, Hamas thwarted every plan," Sha'ath said in an interview to the Palestinian radio station the Voice of Palestine, Thursday.

Sha'ath added that contacts between the PA and Hamas in recent days had failed to produce any result in the creation of a national unity government that would include all of the Palestinian groups.

Ha'aretz reported Wednesday that one day earlier Hamas had implicitly rejected the draft of a political manifesto drawn up by representatives of all the Palestinian organizations and stipulating the foundation of a Palestinian state in the territories captured by Israel in 1967 as the national aim of the Palestinians.

Hamas representatives clarified that the organization was firm in its position that the Palestinian people had a right to all of its motherland - namely from the Jordan River to the sea.

Spokesmen for Hamas and Islamic Jihad said they would not cease attacks inside Israel, even though the draft document does not specifically state the measures the Palestinians should take to achieve their aims. However, as the draft does suggest a united Palestinian leadership - comprised of PLO factions and the Islamic movements - and the adoption of internal reforms, a proposal that implicitly criticizes Arafat's leadership, Hamas has refrained from rejecting it outright.