Palestinian factions Fatah and Hamas have agreed to continue reconciliation talks after a personal plea by Ali Abdullah Saleh, the Yemeni president.

Negotiations were on the brink of collapse after both sides disagreed on the agenda interpreting a Yemeni plan to end a rift triggered when Hamas seized Gaza in June last year.

While none of the differences were resolved, the two factions reached an understanding to hold further negotiations after consulting their respective leaders.

Mahmoud Abbas, the Palestinian president, said both sides were hoping "for a positive outcome."

In private talks, officials from both sides cautioned against high expectations as the two factions remain divided over fundamental points of the Yemeni initiative.

Deep divisions

While the two delegations accepted the initiative as a blueprint for peace, they disagreed on practicalities that would restore control of the Palestinian Authority over the Gaza Strip.

Fatah mainly argued that Hamas should cede control of the Gaza Strip as a precondition to restore the jurisdiction of the Palestinian Authority.

But Hamas argued that withdrawing forces from authority and security buildings in Gaza should be part of an agreement to restore a national unity government.

To prevent the failure of talks in Sanaa, the Yemeni President reworded the initiative to address those concerns whilst introducing new mechanisms for reconciliation.

A new plan

Saleh's revised plan stated that a solution should be a wide-ranging agreement, reached by Palestinian factions in Cairo in 2005, as well as the Saudi-sponsored Mecca accord between Hamas and Fatah that led to the formation of a short-lived Palestinian unity government earlier last year.

The plan aims to promote "the unity of the West Bank and Gaza" - currently split between the two factions - and the unity of the Palestinian Authority through a single government in both Palestinian territories.

The revised plan aims at finding a face-saving formula that allows both sides to close the divide.

The plan calls for the restructuring of Palestinian security institutions, with the forces intended to come under the control of the Palestinian Authority and government rather than Palestinian factions.

A committee comprising a number of Arab countries would follow up the implementation of both the Cairo and Mecca deals.

Sanaa and other Arab states that support an inter-Palestinian dialogue would "put pressure" on Fatah and Hamas to resume talks on the basis of the Yemeni blueprint, a source told Al Jazeera.

Dispute

An unexpected upheaval, unrelated to the initiative itself, came when Abbas sent a delegation of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) to the Sanaa talks, prompting Hamas to initially refuse any negotiations.

PHOTO CAPTION

Hamas deputy chief Moussa Abu Marzouk (C) leaves the headquarters of Yemen's Foreign Ministry in Sanaa March 22, 2008.

Al-Jazeera