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Islamic militant group Hamas has discussed a possible one-year halt to suicide bomb attacks during talks in Cairo with Palestinian President...

Islamic militant group Hamas has discussed a possible one-year halt to suicide bomb attacks during talks in Cairo with Palestinian President Yasser Arafat8217;s Fatah faction, Palestinian officials said on Monday.

In the talks, which began on Saturday in an effort to iron out tensions between the two sides in their fight against Israeli occupation, the sides are discussing whether Hamas will participate in Palestinian presidential and Parliamentary elections set for January, the officials said.

The talks are expected to wrap up on Tuesday with a final communique and an agreement to resume discussions at a later date after consultations on the Cairo talks with their leaderships.

Hamas has violently opposed Arafat8217;s peace deals with Israel and has carried out suicide attacks which have increased since Palestinians launched an uprising against Israeli occupation in the West Bank and Gaza Strip in September 2000.

A Hamas official at the talks said the two sides had formed 8216;8216;a joint political vision on how to face the next phase, since the Zionist aggression against the Palestinian people is increasing and the Zionist right has become more cruel and more daring in showing its hostility.8217;8217;

It was not clear how detailed the final communique after the Cairo talks would be. The Palestinian officials said the issue of Palestinian statehood, covered in talks on Sunday, would not be mentioned in the statement.

Fatah officials said on Sunday that Hamas, which refuses to recognise Israel and wants to liberate all of British-mandate Palestine, objected to a proposal to recognise a 8216;8216;two-state solution.8217;8217;

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They said that talks had tackled political issues such as Hamas8217;s recognition of the establishment of an independent Palestinian state on the West Bank, including Arab East Jerusalem, and the Gaza Strip, lands Israel occupied in the June, 1967 war.

The talks were the first such detailed discussions between the leadership of Hamas and Fatah since 1995 and coincide with a rise in tension between the rivals after the killing of a Palestinian Authority police commander by a Hamas militant.

Fatah officials had said the Cairo meeting followed mediation by European states, Egypt and Saudi Arabia.