Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad called on Palestinian groups to agree on a new premier to replace him in a future unity government.

In an interview with the Jerusalem-based Al-Quds newspaper, Fayyad rejected to be considered an obstacle on the way of reconciliation between President Mahmoud Abbas' Fatah party and the Islamic Hamas movement.

"It is time to fold the file of split," Fayyad said, adding "I have never been an obstacle before the reconciliation and I can't accept to be used as a pretext to keep the split," referring to the political split between the Fatah-ruled West Bank and the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip.

Fayyad's remarks came ahead of an expected meeting between Abbas and Hamas chief Khaled Mashaal. The meeting is going to be the first since Egypt brokered a reconciliation agreement between the two parties in May.

Abbas proposed to retain Fayyad as the head of the unity government that was supposed to be formed under the new agreement, but Hamas rejected that proposal.

Fayyad said the creation of a Palestinian state cannot succeed without reconciliation. After the reconciliation is reached, Fayyad said the Palestinian leadership must submit a new request for the United Nations membership.

In September, Abbas requested a membership for the Palestinian through the UN Security Council, but the admissions committee there failed to agree on the Palestinian application.

By reconciling, Fayyad said the Palestinians can submit the application again when they are united, because they drop some of the "pretexts" the admissions committee used for not passing the Palestinian application.