By Mohammed Assadi RAMALLAH, West Bank, Feb 14 (Reuters) - A top aide to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas said on Wednesday his unity government deal with Hamas Islamists met all the demands of the Quartet of mediating powers and should be accepted. The comments by Azzam al-Ahmad, an Abbas aide who heads Fatah's parliamentary bloc, came one day after officials close to Abbas admitted they were having difficulty persuading the international community to lift sanctions on the unity government. "We will contact the Americans and explain to them all the items in the agreement in detail," Ahmad told reporters in the West Bank city of Ramallah. "The agreement meets the conditions of the Quartet 100 percent." The Quartet of Middle East mediators, composed of the United States, the European Union, the United Nations and Russia, has called on the Palestinian government to recognise Israel, renounce violence and accept interim peace deals. The unity agreement, signed by the ruling Hamas movement and Abbas's Fatah faction last week in Mecca, makes no explicit commitment to recognise Israel or renounce violence. But a letter from Abbas reappointing Ismail Haniyeh of Hamas as prime minister contains a vague call to Hamas to "abide" by Palestinian and Arab resolutions that include recognition of Israel, and to "respect" past agreements and international law. MEET CONDITIONS "IMPLICITLY" Ahmad said these clauses implicitly met the Quartet's three conditions. "We have our own language," he said, adding that the deal "left no pretext for Israel or America" to keep sanctions on the government in place. Hamas has said the unity government deal does not include recognition of Israel and does not commit it to accepting previous agreements. Haniyeh said at the start of his weekly cabinet meeting in Gaza that he would begin taking steps soon to ensure the unity government "can see the light of day in the nearest time possible". A government official said Haniyeh and his Hamas-led cabinet would resign by Thursday to make way for the unity government. Haniyeh is expected to lead the new government, according to the terms of the deal, which aimed to end factional warfare in Gaza and ease an economic embargo on the Palestinian Authority. Some Hamas lawmakers said Haniyeh would not step down until he and Abbas had finalised several unresolved issues in the Saudi-brokered deal, including naming an interior minister and deputy prime minister. Abbas and Hamas have yet to settle their differences over the fate of Hamas's 5,600-member "executive" police force. Fatah is pushing for the force to be broken up, but Hamas wants to keep it together. Fighting between Hamas and Fatah killed more than 90 Palestinians between late December and early February. Israeli officials said the Jewish state was considering suspending contacts with Abbas if the unity government did not meet all three Quartet demands. The move could increase pressure on Abbas and hinder U.S. efforts to revive long-stalled peace talks. U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice plans a three-way meeting with Abbas and Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert in Jerusalem on Feb. 19. (Additional reporting by Nidal al-Mughrabi in Gaza)
