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Fatah supporters wave Palestinian and Fatah flags during a rally in Nablus as unity talks take place in Cairo

CAIRO (AlArabiya.net, Agencies)

Palestinian groups Fatah and Hamas exchanged promises late Wednesday to free each other's detainees in Gaza and the West Bank, in a goodwill gesture on the eve of national unity talks, as Israel's prime Minister Ehud Olmert urged Hamas to finalize a prisoner exchange with Israel before he leaves office.

The accord came as the feuding movements held talks aimed at paving the way for a unity government ahead of Thursday's start of dialogue between Fatah, the secular movement headed by Palestinian President Mahmud Abbas, and Hamas, the Islamist group that rules the Gaza
Strip.

The two sides reached an agreement on resolving the prisoners issue "in a timeline not going beyond the end of the inter-Palestinian dialogue meetings," the two sides said in a joint statement.

" A certain number of detainees will be freed right at the beginning of the dialogue "
Fatah leader Azzam al-Ahmad

"A certain number of detainees will be freed right at the beginning of the dialogue," said the statement from Azzam al-Ahmad, leader of the Fatah bloc in the Palestinian parliament, and senior Hamas official Mahmud al-Zahar.

"Other detainees will be freed successively so that this issue will be totally closed before the end of the national Palestinian dialogue," it said.
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Releasing prisoners
" The climate is positive and promising. We hope for positive results "
Hamas political bureau member Ezzat Resheq

Zahar said 80 Hamas members held in the West Bank, which is controlled by the moderate Fatah movement, have been released and that 300 are still being held.

For its part, the Islamist movement Hamas has lifted the house arrest of a number of Fatah members in the Gaza Strip.

The two factions have long been rivals but their feuding boiled over in June 2007 when Hamas seized control of Gaza, routing forces loyal to Palestinian President Mahmud Abbas after days of deadly street battles.

Egypt had originally called for Palestinian reconciliation talks in November, but Hamas withdrew at the last minute, complaining that Fatah was continuing to arrest Hamas members in the West Bank.

"The climate is positive and promising," Hamas political bureau member Ezzat Resheq told journalists after Wednesday's talks. "We hope for positive results."

The stakes are high for Thursday's negotiations as billions of dollars of funds to rebuild the Gaza Strip may be available if terms set by international donors can be met before an aid meeting next week in Egypt.

Hamas won the 2006 Palestinian general election but its government was boycotted by Israel and the West, and attempts at a national unity government failed.

Thursday's conference, which will also bring in other Palestinian factions, stems from Egyptian proposals for a lasting ceasefire following Israel's 22-day onslaught on Gaza, in which more than 1,330 people were killed and buildings and infrastructure destroyed.
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Shalit issue
" I am convinced that the prime minister who succeeds me will do everything in his power to free Gilad Shalit "
Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert

Cross-border violence has continued since then in the absence of a full ceasefire.

On Wednesday Israeli warplanes launched air strikes along Gaza's border with Egypt, after rockets were fired from the territory on south Israel causing no casualties.

Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert urged Hamas on Wednesday to clinch a prisoner exchange with Israel before he leaves office, saying his successor would be less willing to free jailed Palestinians.

Olmert, whose centrist government is in a caretaker capacity while hawkish prime minister-designate Benjamin Netanyahu tries to form a new coalition, has stepped up efforts to recover Gilad Shalit, an Israeli soldier held in the Gaza Strip since 2006.

Hamas wants 1,400 Palestinian prisoners -- including leaders -- to go free in exchange for Shalit.

"And it knows that if there is a chance of reaching a settlement, it's during my tenure," he said.

"I am convinced that the prime minister who succeeds me will do everything in his power to free Gilad Shalit. I fear that doing what I am willing to do would be difficult for him, because of the makeup of the (political) forces supporting him."

He refused to say how many prisoners he might agree to free.

The Olmert government last week raised the stakes by demanding Hamas agree to free Shalit under any wider ceasefire.

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