20110505
reuters

CAIRO (Reuters) - The Palestinian president, who heads Fatah, and the leader of the Islamist group Hamas were in Cairo on Wednesday to endorse a deal to end a four-year rift but a last minute hitch cast doubt on the durability of the accord.

The Egyptian-brokered deal, denounced by Israel, calls for forming an interim government to run the occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip and prepare for a general election within a year.

Palestinians see this reconciliation as crucial for their drive to establish an independent state in the territories captured by Israel in the 1967 war.

But the ceremony was delayed by a disagreement over protocol shortly before it began over whether Hamas leader Khaled Meshaal should sit on the podium with President Mahmoud Abbas or down among other Palestinian delegates in the hall.

"There is a dispute in the protocol over the seating of leaders," said one Palestinian source, who declined to be named.

"The difference is about where Meshaal will sit, whether he should be on the stage or among leaders of factions."

Officials from all the Palestinian factions had earlier signed the deal that Meshaal and Abbas were expected to endorse at the ceremony. It was not immediately clear why they were not going to put their own signatures to it.

"The signing has been done, everyone signed. Today is the crowning of this achievement," said senior Fatah official Nabil Shaath, speaking shortly before the ceremony.