Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas will no longer pursue unity talks with the ruling Hamas movement and instead will convene a supreme committee of the Palestine Liberation Organization to decide how to proceed, a top Abbas aide said Thursday.

Saeb Erekat made the comment shortly after Abbas told a press conference in the West Bank town of Jericho that such unity talks had reached a "dead end."

Hamas and Fatah had been negotiating a unity government in the expectation that it would bring about an end to international sanctions on the Hamas government imposed over the group's refusal to recognize Israel, renounce violence or abide by previous peace agreements.

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"Unfortunately we are at a dead end," Abbas said. "For eight or nine months, the Palestinian people have gone without salaries, but unfortunately we have not reached an agreement."

"In my opinion if the president [Abbas] says this it means he personally will not pursue this any longer" Erekat said.

"He will summon the PLO Executive Committee, or leadership, and study the options, anything short of a civil war."

But Palestinian Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh of Hamas said Thursday that the talks would not run into a dead end.

"The atmosphere has been somewhat tense but I am confident that the door must not be closed and we will not reach a dead end," Haniyeh told a news conference in Cairo.