Palestinian Authority Prime Minister Salam Fayyad said Saturday that a national unity government must be formed urgently as the last stages of the national project are completed.
Fayyad's comments were made during a tour of villages near Ramallah, where the premier helped farmers to plant tree saplings.
The prime minister's two-year state-building initiative is scheduled to be completed in September, when the PA is expected to seek international recognition of its statehood at the UN.
Fayyad noted that donors recently acknowledged that the PA was ready for statehood at a conference in Brussels.
"We shouldn’t waste this opportunity to get the international community to admit that by September 2011, occupation must come to an end," he said.
To achieve statehood, a unity government must be formed to end to the national division between Fatah and Hamas, which separately govern the West Bank and Gaza Strip, the premier said.
"I am confident that the dawn of freedom will rise just as light will rise from the Holy Sepulchre spreading to each and every city and village until we build our state on all the Palestinian territories occupied in 1967 in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip with Jerusalem as its capital," the Ramallah-based prime minister added.
In Beitilu, west of Ramallah, Fayyad also joined a celebration honoring the village's football club which moved up to the second division.
He was accompanied by several officials including the governor of Ramallah Laila Ghannam and presidential advisor Hajj Isma’il Jabir.
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