Hamas has "serious intentions" to make unity government talks with Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas succeed, Palestinian Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh of Hamas said Sunday, a day after Abbas described negotiations as "back to zero."

Haniyeh said he remained hopeful a unity government would be established, brushing aside Abbas's assertion that Hamas had backtracked on its commitments to a government that would recognize Israel.

The the Quartet of Middle East peace negotiators - the United States, the European Union, the United Nations and Russia - wants Hamas to recognize Israel, renounce violence and abide by previously signed peace agreements before it lifts the economic blockade imposed in the wake of the party's victory in the January parliamentary elections.

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Hamas has rejected the conditions, but the Palestinians hope that the formation of a unity government will end the crippling embargo.

Meanwhile, senior Abbas aide Saeb Erekat said Sunday that Abbas and Haniyeh would meet in Gaza on Tuesday, to resume coalition talks.

Haniyeh's statement was the latest in a battle of contradictory assessments issuing from the rival Hamas and Fatah camps.

The key dispute is over whether a coalition of Hamas and Abbas' Fatah movement would recognize Israel. Abbas, who has pressed Hamas to lift its opposition to recognition, was headed to the Palestinian territories Sunday, after attending the UN General Assembly in New York.

"We are going to resume talks on the formation of a national coalition
government," Haniyeh said Sunday. "We have serious intentions to make it
succeed, and we hope that the talks will resume soon."

"I believe that we have gone a long way down the road [toward an agreement]," Haniyeh told reporters in Gaza. "There is a real hope that it will succeed."

Erekat hinted Sunday that the PA chairman would press Hamas to agree to lift its opposition to recognizing Israel.

"He [Abbas] will tell Hamas, 'If you want a unity government, there are international requirements that need to be met, and that's the only way to form a unity government,'" Erekat said.

Abbas has accused Haniyeh and other Hamas leaders of reneging on an agreement reached earlier this month on a political programme for a unity government that included recognition of interim peace deals with Israel.

Palestinians hope that formation of a unity government will prompt Western powers to ease an aid embargo that has increased poverty and lawlessness in Gaza and the occupied West Bank.

The aid embargo was imposed when Hamas came to power in March to pressure the Islamic militant group to meet three conditions: recognise Israel, renounce violence and abide by interim peace deals.

A breakdown in unity talks could lead to a flare-up in fighting between rival armed factions loyal to Hamas and Abbas's Fatah movement. Hamas trounced Fatah in parliamentary elections in January.

"We will fight any government that recognises Israel," said Abu Abir, spokesman for the Popular Resistance Committees (PRC), an umbrella militant group often responsible for rocket attacks against Israel.

The PRC statement was backed by three other militant groups, which are part of Fatah but are at odds with Abbas's peace policies. The group later retracted the comments.

PLO official Yasser Abed Rabbo said a unity government would not be possible unless Hamas accepts interim peace deals, an Arab peace initiative and other UN resolutions.

"Otherwise it will suffer in the same way that the Hamas-monopolized government suffered. All factions that will participate in the unity government will be besieged in the same way Hamas is now," he said.

Washington has threatened to shun Fatah members who join a government led by Hamas if that government does not meet the three conditions.

Ghazi Hamad, a spokesman for the Hamas-led government, warned against setting preconditions for unity talks, and said Hamas was still "committed" to the agreement reached with Abbas.

"I believe that international conditions are not acceptable to all Palestinians and Palestinian factions. Such an issue must be discussed by all factions to make a final decision," he said.

Speaking at the General Assembly in New York on Thursday, Abbas said "any future Palestinian government" would honour all previous interim peace accords with Israel.