Hamas and Fatah have signed a Yemeni-sponsored reconciliation deal in Sanaa and agreed to hold direct talks.

PLO and Hamas representatives reached the agreement in the Yemeni capital on Sunday after negotiations appeared close to collapse.

The factions had agreed the previous day to continue reconciliation talks after a personal plea by Ali Abdullah Saleh, Yemen's president, to end the crisis that erupted after Hamas took full control of the Gaza Strip in June last year.

Azzam al-Ahmed, a Fatah politician, and Mousa Abu Marzouk, the Hamas chief negotiator, signed the deal in Saleh's presence at the Yemeni presidential headquarters.

Jacky Rowland, Al Jazera's correspondent in Jerusalem, said the deal, which agrees only to open talks on a number of issues, appeared to bear little substance.

However, she said: "Anything which can be seen as getting Hamas and Fatah to agree to talk to each other has to be seen as progress in itself when one bears in mind the events of the last year."

The two delegations had earlier accepted the initiative as a blueprint for peace but disagreed on practicalities that would restore control of the Palestinian Authority (PA) over the Gaza Strip.

PHOTO CAPTION

(L-R) Hamas number two Mussa Abu Marzuk with Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh and Fatah parliamentary leader Azzam al-Ahmed in Sanaa.

Al-Jazeera