Hamas leader Zahar: We don't want to replace PLO, we want to join it

Senior Hamas official Mahmoud Zahar on Sunday played down reports that his Islamist militant group wanted to establish a new umbrella body to replace the Palestine Liberation Organisation as the sole representative of the Palestinians.

Zahar told Al-Jazeera television that remarks by Hamas's political leader, Khaled Meshal, that some Palestinian groups were discussing the formation of a "national steering committee" as an alternative to the PLO had been misinterpreted.

"Meshal's remarks about the resistance's program were interpreted by [the media] to be an alternative to the PLO, and we didn't say that," Zahar, who is based in Gaza, said in Cairo in an interview with the Doha-based broadcaster.

The PLO has represented the Palestinians since 1964 but the more recently created Islamist movements Hamas and Islamic Jihad have never been part of it despite a 2005 agreement to bring them under its fold.

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas' Fatah movement is the largest of 11 groups that constitute the PLO, which in the early 1990s signed peace accords with Israel that aim to establish a Palestinian state.

Hamas and Islamic Jihad oppose peace talks with Israel and have rejected demands that they renounce violence and recognize Israel in return for international recognition and PLO membership.

Zahar, who spoke in Cairo where he met Egyptian officials trying to seal a cease-fire deal between Hamas and Israel in the Gaza Strip, reiterated his group's interest in joining the PLO if certain conditions were met.

"We want to acquire the international and Arab legitimacy and everything that the PLO has gained through elections, and to join the PLO," he told Al-Jazeera.

But he added: "We are in favor of preserving the structure of the PLO, but not its program. If we are a minority, we will respect that. But if we are a majority, they have to respect that."

Abbas said last week there would be no dialogue with Hamas unless it recognized the supremacy of the PLO.

A schism between Hamas and Fatah widened in 2007 when the Islamist group routed Abbas' forces to seize control of the Gaza Strip.

Zahar headed for Damascus on Sunday to consult with Meshal on Cairo's efforts to mediate a lasting truce with Israel, which launched a 22-day offensive in the Gaza Strip in December to bring Hamas's rocket firing into south Israel to a halt.

The offensive saw more than 1,300 Palestinians killed, a majority of them civilians, as well as 13 Israelis.

A Palestinian official close to the talks said "signals are positive" about a possible cease-fire agreement.

The Palestinian official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said parallel talks over captured Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit were likewise making progress, though Israeli leaders sought to play down expectations.

Separately, Hamas spokesman Fawzi Barhoum said in Gaza that a ceasefire deal could be reached within a few days.

"I believe we can say that the coming days will witness the signing of a ceasefire agreement that secures a dignified and secure life for our Palestinian people like all the other people in the region," Barhoum said.