Hamas' deputy political chief Moussa Abu Marzouk told the Egyptian newspaper Al-Ahram that his organization may be willing to agree to a new one-year cease-fire with Israel, Israel Radio reported Saturday.

According to the radio report, Abu Marzouk said Palestinians need mutual and comprehensive calm in both the Gaza Strip and the West Bank.

Regarding abducted Israel Defense Forces soldier Gilad Shalit, the Damascus-based leader said prisoner exchange talks were halted because Israel rejected the list of prisoners Hamas wants freed.

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He added that no progress on the issue would be possible unless Israel changes its position.

Hamas political leader Khaled Meshal said his organization would be willing to stop firing rockets at Israel if Israel stops its targeted killings of Hamas militants, a senior Palestinian official told Israel Radio late Friday.

The Palestinian source said Meshal made the offer during a telephone conversation with Qatari Prime Minister Sheikh Abdullah Bin Khalifa Al-Thani. The Qatari prime minister later called Prime Minister Ehud Olmert to update him on his conversation with Meshal, the radio reported.

A senior Israeli official said Saturday that Israel must respond 'doubtfully and carefully' to the offer, the radio reported.

According the radio, Hamas has not fired rockets at Israel in the past three days. However, the group's armed wing said the lull in rocket attacks does not signal a decision to restore the calm with Israel, but rather is part of its overall strategy.

Hamas proposes one of its own as interior minister

Hamas has nominated one of its members to be Palestinian interior minister, officials said on Saturday, a choice likely to be opposed by Western states.

But in considering the nomination of Ghazi Hamad, Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas must also judge whether a veto by his Fatah faction would risk stirring more fighting between the two groups.

As interior minister, Hamad would be in charge of 30,000 members of the Palestinian security forces, boosting Hamas's influence at the expense of Fatah, its partner in a unity government. He currently serves as cabinet spokesman.

Fatah and Hamas officials said Abbas had discussed the nomination with Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh of Hamas.

The previous interior minister, Hani al-Qawasmi, resigned two weeks ago after the biggest surge in bloodshed between Islamist Hamas and secular Fatah in months.

Officials said Qawasmi, a former academic, had been frustrated by competition from powerful Fatah rivals for control of the armed contingents. Haniyeh took over the interior ministry portfolio temporarily from Qawasmi.

Filling the position had been one of the main obstacles to forming the current coalition government back in March.

Hamad, formerly a local Hamas leader in the southern Gaza town of Rafah, was the editor of a pro-Hamas newspaper before becoming cabinet spokesman.

He has spent time in Israeli jails over his membership of Hamas, a movement that Israel, the United States and the European Union have classified as a terrorist organisation.

He was also jailed for his Hamas activities by the Fatah-dominated Palestinian Authority in 1996.

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