High-ranking leaders of rival Fatah and Islamic Hamas movement held a meeting on Wednesday night in Gaza City to discuss reconciliation and reconstruction of the Gaza Strip.

Four Fatah leaders, headed by Abdallah el-Ifranji arrived at the office of Hamas spokesman in Gaza Ayman Taha to hold talks with four Hamas leaders headed by senior Hamas leader Salah el-Bardawil.

It is the first meeting between senior leaders of the two movements since Hamas took control of the Gaza Strip by force in the summer of 2007 and routed Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas' security forces.

On Tuesday, Abbas sent el-Ifranji and another Fatah leader to the Gaza Strip to look at the destruction caused by a 22-day Israeli military offensive on the enclave that ended on Jan. 18.

A series of dialogue sessions were held in Cairo last month between the two movements as well as leaders of other Palestinian factions, but they had failed to agree on the outstanding issues, mainly the formation of a new unity government.

After the takeover of Gaza by Hamas, Abbas sacked Hamas national unity government and nominated a new government headed by Salam Fayyad. Hamas kept its government in Gaza and rejected Abbas ' decree.

Fatah and Hamas representatives who met in Cairo last week failed to overcome differences on the political platform of the new government. They agreed to hold another meeting in Cairo on April 26.

(Xinhua News Agency April 9, 2009)