(Adds Abbas aide on speech, paragraph 3) By Wafa Amr RAMALLAH, West Bank, Feb 14 (Reuters) - Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas abruptly put off an address he was due to give on Thursday about a new unity government and an official said on Wednesday the delay was due to a dispute with Hamas. Abbas had been expected to promote the deal in a speech to Palestinians before heading to the Gaza Strip to accept the resignation of Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh, a Hamas leader who is supposed to lead the new unity government agreed in Mecca. Abbas adviser Nabil Abu Rdainah told Palestinian television the president would give his speech after the Gaza talks. Some Hamas lawmakers said Haniyeh would not step down until he and Abbas, the moderate Fatah leader, had finalised several unresolved issues in the Saudi-brokered deal including naming an interior minister and deputy prime minister. "Hamas has made several unacceptable conditions which cannot be implemented. The Mecca agreement cannot be re-interpreted and must be implemented immediately without any conditions," a Palestinian official said, speaking on condition of anonymity. " ... they have certain conditions on the interior minister and the foreign minister and on the executive force," he said. The fate of Hamas's 5,600-member "executive" police force is another issue which Abbas and Hamas have yet to resolve. 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. Haniyeh said at the start of his weekly cabinet meeting in Gaza on Wednesday 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 had said Haniyeh and his Hamas-led cabinet would resign by Thursday to make way for the unity government. Abbas is expected to travel to Gaza on Thursday. "The prime minister will address some unresolved issues in the meeting with President Abbas in order to reach a final agreement over them," said cabinet spokesman Ghazi Hamad. "We hope that tomorrow there will be a final step towards the formation of the unity government," Hamad said. THREE ISSUES The unity deal agreed in Mecca aimed to end the factional warfare in Gaza and persuade the Quartet of Middle East peace negotiators to lift sanctions on the Palestinian Authority. The Quartet, 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 makes no explicit commitment to recognise Israel or renounce violence. But a letter from Abbas reappointing Haniyeh 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. "We will contact the Americans and explain to them all the items in the agreement in detail," Abbas aide Azzam al-Ahmad told reporters in the West Bank city of Ramallah. "The agreement meets the conditions of the Quartet 100 percent." Hamas has said the unity government deal does not include recognition of Israel and does not commit it to accepting previous agreements. 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)
