Fatah and Hamas officials say talks in Cairo to work out the details of reconciliation have so far been positive, Egyptian media reported Tuesday.

Officials did not say who was being considered for posts in the new technocrat government being created, but said the new administration would be in place "soon," the Cairo-based newspaper Ash-Sharq Al-Awsat reported.

Head of Fatah's delegation Azzam Al-Ahmad denied reports that President Mahmoud Abbas would head the new Palestinian Authority cabinet as prime minister with current prime ministers Salam Fayyad and Ismail Haniyeh as his deputies in the West Bank and Gaza.

"This would contradict what has been agreed on in the reconciliation deal signed in Cairo," he said.

However, he said the recently signed unity deal was progressing. "We have set the train on the railway," Al-Ahmad said.

Hamas leader Izzat Ar-Rishiq told the newspaper that "the same positive spirit" prevailed during the meeting as in the initial signing of a unity agreement on May 4.

He explained that both parties agreed not to reveal details, but he said the new government would be announced soon.

Ar-Rishiq is part of the Hamas delegation led by Mousa Abu Marzouq, deputy chief of Hamas' politburo.

Delegations from the former rival factions arrived in Cairo on Saturday to discuss the composition of a technocrat government, set to take over from the Fatah-led Palestinian Authority in the West Bank and the Hamas government in Gaza.

According to Ash-Sharq Al-Awsat. the delegations also tackled other files agreed in the unity pact, including the reformation of the security services in the West Bank and Gaza, and the platform of the new government.

Al-Ahmad said factions also discussed arranging a meeting of the PLO's Constitution Committee. The committee last convened in 2005 after unity talks between 13 Palestinian factions in Cairo led to an agreement which paved the way for legislative elections in 2006.

The committee has been charged with reconfiguring the Palestinian National Council, the highest legislative body of the PLO. It will work to build trust following four years of rivalry, Al-Ahmad said.

The release of political detainees and the reunification of Palestinian institutions in the West Bank and Gaza were top priorities, the Fatah official added.
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