The New Nation - Internet Edition

AFP, London

Hamas chief Khaled Meshaal invited Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas to Gaza for unconditional talks on the two factions' divisions, in a television interview Monday. He also told British broadcaster Sky News that Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit, captured by Palestinian militants in June 2006, is still alive and being treated well. "We invite Mr Mahmud Abbas to come to Gaza to talk directly without any conditionst to work together to find a solution to the problems in Gaza and the West Bank," Meshaal said, speaking from an undisclosed location in Damascus. The aim of the talks would be "get back our Palestinian union and find the reasons for our problems and to solve the security problem," he added. The invitation comes after rival Palestinian factions Hamas and Abbas's Fatah reached a Yemeni-brokered deal on March 23 to open their first direct talks since the Islamists seized control of the Gaza Strip nine months ago. But within hours of signing that agreement, the two bitter rivals bickered over its meaning, with Hamas focusing on the first part of the statement while Fatah highlighted the second as a precondition for any talks. And the day after the deal was struck, a senior Israeli official warned Abbas against striking a reconciliation deal with Hamas, saying it would effectively sink faltering Middle East peace talks. The Hamas seizure of Gaza effectively split the Palestinian territories into two separate entities with the Islamists controlling the impoverished coastal strip and Abbas ruling the occupied West Bank.