Dr. Mohammed Shabir, the U.S.-educated university professor favored to be the next Palestinian prime minister, has accepted the offer, a Hamas official said Monday.

Officials from the rival Fatah and Hamas parties on Monday said they had
agreed upon Shabir, the longtime president of Gaza's Islamic University, as prime minister of an emerging unity government.

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A Hamas official said Shabir has accepted the invitation. The official spoke on condition of anonymity, pending an official announcement.

Shabir told Haaretz on Monday that he maintains "sound relations with all."

A senior Hamas official said Monday that the militant Palestinian group and the Fatah faction, headed by Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas, agreed on naming Shabir to head the next Palestinian unity government.

But the 60-year-old former head of the Islamic University in Gaza said he has not yet received official word of his appointment.

He said he has heard many reports in the media, but would only weigh the chances of heading a successful government after he is asked to take the post.

He said that he is not linked to any one organization, but is rather an independent.

Shabir told Haaretz that he has no problem with any party, including the United States, but would only be willing to address his views on Israel after he was officially named to the post.

"I will make my position clear after the appointment," he said, but added that he would act "realistically."

Fatah and Hamas leaders met in Gaza City on Monday to hold talks on the emerging national unity government.

Shabir, who has a doctorate in microbiology from the University of West Virginia, is considered to be close to Hamas, but he is not an active supporter, nor is he identified with any Palestinian organization.

Hamas and Fatah hope that Shabir, considered to be relatively moderate, will be acceptable to the international community and would help convince the West to lift debilitating economic sanctions that have crippled the government since it took power in March.

Palestinian sources said that several other key positions in their cabinet of experts will probably be filled by figures that are considered moderate and acceptable to the United States.

They said that Abbas, who has already agreed to the candidacy of Shubair as prime minister, hopes to make Ziad Abu Amar foreign minister.

Abu Amar, an academic who frequently speaks at U.S. universities, was supported by Hamas in the last parliamentary election.

The sources say that Salam Fayad, who served as finance minister in previous PA governments and is considered close to the U.S., is likely to be tapped for that position again in the new cabinet.

According to the sources, Hamas wants individuals closely affiliated closely with the movement to man cabinet posts connected to domestic affairs, including the interior, education, health and Waqf ministries.

Hamas is likely to have 11 or 12 ministers, while Fatah will have to settle for between five and seven ministers.

Representatives of both parties deny that any discussion or agreement on ministry staffing has taken place.

Meanewhile, Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, in an interview published Monday with the Palestinian daily al-Quds, said he is willing to talk to Hamas if it accepts the conditions presented by the international community.

Olmert noted that Israel once refused to deal with the Palestine Liberation Organization, considering it a terrorist organization, but now talks to its representatives, including Abbas, its leader.

Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni said Israel would look at the new government's positions and then decide whether to have ties with it.

"The issue is not who is sitting in the government but what the government says," Livni told Israel Radio, responding to the emerging Cabinet lineup.

Shabir was born in Gaza in 1946. He left to study pharmacy in Alexandria, Egypt and later in West Virginia.

After returning to Gaza he worked for the Islamic University. He was appointed head of the medical school and then dean before becoming university president in 1993. His father was a member of the Muslim Brotherhood.

Former PA prime minister Ahmed Qureia arrived in Gaza on Sunday to represent Abbas in the talks between the Palestinian factions.

Qureia met twice with Hamas leaders, including Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh, along with senior Hamas officials and foreign minister candidate Abu Amar.

Palestinian sources emphasized that the entire enterprise of putting together a cabinet of technocrats still depends on the U.S. willingness of the to lift the economic sanctions placed on the PA, as well as on Israel's readiness to release the imprisoned Hamas cabinet ministers and MPs as part of a comprehensive deal for the release of abducted Israel Defense Forces soldier Gilad Shalit.

The sources said that Hamas is conditioning its agreement on these measures, and added that the Americans have agreed in principle to Shubair's appointment as premier.

Arab states decided to lift the economic boycott of the PA imposed when Hamas took control of the government in January.

The announcement came during a meeting of Arab League foreign ministers in Cairo on Sunday.

The move represented a response to the U.S. veto on Saturday in the UN Security Council of a resolution sponsored by Qatar denouncing Israel for the IDF operation in Beit Hanun last week.

"We decided not to cooperate with the blockade. There will no longer be an international siege," Bahrain's Foreign Minister Sheikh Khalid bin Ahmed Al-Khalifa said.

The Fatah Revolutionary Council decided on Sunday night to appoint Abbas supreme commander of the organization, a post previously held by Yasser Arafat.

The measure was apparently aimed at limiting the authority of Fatah secretary general Farouk Kaddoumi, who sought to lead the principal Fatah forum and thereby reduce Abbas' authority.

The council also decided that a special committee is to establish a united Fatah emergency leadership for the West Bank and the Gaza Strip.