The New Nation - Internet Edition

AFP, Cairo

All Palestinian militant groups meeting in Cairo have accepted an Egyptian-mediated proposal for a truce with Israel, the official MENA news agency said Wednesday, citing well-informed sources.

"All Palestinian factions, forces and parties have accepted Egypt's proposal on a truce with Israel," MENA quoted the well-informed sources as saying-referring to Hamas, Fatah and the 12 factions currently in Cairo. The deal for a six-month period of calm has already been accepted by the Islamist movement Hamas, while Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas, from rival Fatah, on Sunday gave the negotiations unconditional support.

MENA said an official statement would be released later in the day once Egyptian intelligence chief and chief mediator with Israel Omar Suleiman finishes his two days of talks with the factions on Wednesday. The Palestinian ambassador to Cairo, Nabil Amr, who was nominated by Abbas to follow the talks, told AFP that Egyptian officials had told him the outcome of the talks was "positive and excellent."

Amr said that, after obtaining the Palestinians' agreement, Egyptian officials would travel to Israel to submit the plan. He could not say when that might happen.

Egypt has been serving as a go-between in truce negotiations, as Israel refuses any direct contacts with organisations it considers terror groups.

The agreement of Islamic Jihad, which fires most rockets from Gaza into Israel, is seen as crucial for the deal. A spokesman for the group said they would respect a truce but not sign it if it applied only in Gaza. "We will respect what Israel respects but we will not sign a truce to be applied only in the Gaza Strip," Jihad spokesman Daud Shahab told AFP from Gaza.

"If the Palestinian factions agree on a period of calm we will not be an obstacle but we will not sign. We reject the principle of a calming in Gaza; we are against a political division between Gaza and the West Bank," he said. "If there are attacks, nobody and no agreement will prevent us from responding," he said. "Israel will not respect anything because no powerful party will oblige it to respect the calm. Only resistance can stem Israel's attacks." Other factions at the talks include the leftist Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, the Popular Resistance Committees (PRC), the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine (DFLP) and the Popular Struggle Front (PSF). The PRC was one of the groups behind the 2006 capture of Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit, who remains captive pending a prisoner exchange deal but there was no immediate word on whether such a deal had been reached.

Hamas last week told the Egyptians it would be ready to accept a truce first in the Gaza Strip, to be followed six months later in the West Bank. The Israeli blockade of Gaza since June 2007 must also be lifted, according to the deal. Israel has expressed doubts about Hamas's intentions but said it would consider a truce if Hamas stopped firing rockets at Israeli territory and attacking border positions. Israel allows only limited basic supplies into the Gaza Strip in an embargo it says aims to force militants to halt their almost daily rocket fire against the Jewish state.