(Adds abduction of six Fatah fighters, Israel bans two Hamas cabinet ministers from travelling to Saudi Arabia) By Nidal al-Mughrabi GAZA, Feb 5 (Reuters) - Palestinian Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh of Hamas said on Monday he hoped a meeting with President Mahmoud Abbas would result in an agreement on a unity government to end a crippling Western embargo. Haniyeh and Hamas chief Khaled Meshaal will hold talks in Mecca on Tuesday with a Fatah delegation led by Abbas which also aim to end factional warfare which has killed more than 80 Palestinians since December. "There may be obstacles but we confirm that we are going with true intentions to reach a Palestinian-Palestinian agreement that would end tensions and reinforce national unity," Haniyeh said at the weekly cabinet meeting in Gaza. "We have no choice but to reach an agreement," he said. Haniyeh said a ceasefire deal between rival Hamas and Fatah forces was taking hold and he hoped it would last. "The government is determined that calm should be a permanent one and not temporary," he said. In Gaza City, gunmen from rival factions stood down, with minor violations reported for most of the day. However, after nightfall, gunmen in the northern Gaza town of Beit Hanoun stormed the local headquarters of Force 17, which is loyal to Fatah, and abducted six members, residents said. Fatah officials blamed Hamas for the assault. Hamas declined to say whether it was holding the men but accused Force 17 of setting up a checkpoint in Beit Hanoun and trying to detain Hamas members. While both sides had released some hostages taken during the fighting, officials said before the Force 17 incident that Hamas still held nine Fatah men while 32 members of Hamas remained in Fatah custody. JORDAN CROSSING At the Allenby Bridge crossing with Jordan, Israeli authorities prevented two West Bank-based Hamas cabinet ministers from travelling to Amman, from where they had planned to fly to the talks in Mecca, Hamas officials said. Deputy Prime Minister Naser al-Shaer and Planning Minister Samir Abu Eisha have been barred on previous occasions by Israel from leaving the West Bank. Israeli spokesmen were not immediately available for comment on Monday's incident. Tension has risen in the Gaza Strip since Hamas, an Islamist group whose charter calls for Israel's destruction, defeated Fatah in elections last year, prompting the West to suspend aid unless it moderates its stand. Abbas's call in December for new elections set off an especially fierce round of fighting. Hamas accused Abbas, the Fatah leader, of engineering a coup. Abbas said he would give talks one last chance to form a coalition government between Hamas and Fatah. "Fatah has always been interested in an agreement, an agreement that serves the Palestinian interest and would get our people out of the internal, regional and international crisis," Tawfiq Abu Khoussa, a Fatah spokesman, said. However, he noted that previous rounds of negotiations had been abandoned after Hamas stuck to its refusal to accept Western demands that the government recognise the Jewish state, renounce violence and accept past Israeli-Palestinian accords. Failure to clinch an agreement in Mecca appeared certain to lead to more fighting on Gaza's tense streets.
