Hamas has demanded to keep the post of prime minister and other key jobs in a possible new coalition government with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, Hamas officials said today.
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas has been under US pressure to sack the Hamas administration.
The terms were swiftly rejected by a leading member of the moderate president's Fatah movement, which agreed with Hamas on Wednesday to renew talks on a unity government that might ease international isolation.
Leaving Hamas in charge of the main portfolios would do nothing to ease a Western aid embargo designed to push the militant group to recognise Israel's right to exist, renounce violence and accept past peace accords.
Hamas official Osama al-Muzaini said that Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh had handed Mr Abbas a letter outlining Hamas's vision for a unity government. "Any government must be headed by Hamas and the majority of seats should be for Hamas," Mr Muzaini said.
"It is reasonable given the fact that Hamas is the majority in parliament," he said, adding that they were not absolute conditions.
Hamas, committed to destroying Israel, won elections in January to end decades of Fatah domination over Palestinian politics. Amid an increasingly violent power struggle, the two groups agreed a common political platform in June.
But the wording was vague enough for each to give a different interpretation and for Hamas to deny any suggestion it meant recognising Israel.
Mr Abbas wants to ensure that any new government would give him a clear mandate for talks with Israel on an eventual state in the Gaza Strip and the occupied West Bank.
Mr Abbas has been under US pressure to simply sack the Hamas administration.