Palestinian sources have claimed that Saudi Arabia has severed relations with Hamas in recent weeks, and the Saudi government is consequently refusing to meet with senior Hamas officials. Palestinian Foreign Minister Mahmoud a-Zahar, who visited the kingdom recently, did not meet with a single senior Saudi official during his stay, sources said.

Meanwhile, Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas has reached an agreement with Hamas on a diplomatic platform for a Palestinian unity government, Abbas said in a interview with the London-based paper Al-Hayat yesterday.

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What remains to be resolved, he said, are the issues of a cease-fire and a prisoner exchange for kidnapped Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit.

Senior Hamas officials have said recently they would be willing to declare a temporary cease-fire with Israel. But an associate of Abbas said that Hamas has thus far only agreed to stop the Qassam rocket fire at Israel from Gaza: It has not agreed to a complete cease-fire that would also halt attacks in the West Bank and suicide bombings inside Israel.

Abbas' associates added that besides the cease-fire and Shalit, another issue is holding up formation of a unity government: Hamas' demand for control over the Finance and Interior Ministries in any such government, which Abbas refuses to accept. This, they said, is why a negotiating session scheduled for last night was canceled.