Hamas Government Lacks Soft Edges

Hamas announced the formation of its Cabinet on Saturday, a government that excludes other Palestinian factions and increases the chance that it will be isolated by Israel and the United States.

Hamas will keep the key portfolios, including the Foreign Ministry and the Interior Ministry, in its hands and give lower-level postings to technocrats, officials said.

Though the announcement comes two weeks ahead of deadline, the new government apparently lacks coalition partners that might have softened the militants groups image.

Hamas' designated prime minister, Ismail Haniyeh, said he would present his Cabinet to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas at a meeting on Sunday, two weeks ahead of schedule. Names of ministers will only be officially released after the meeting, he said.

Abbas is expected to approve the makeup of the Cabinet, even though he warned Hamas that their failure to adopt a more moderate platform could hurt Palestinian interests, Nabil Abu Rdeneh, Abbas' spokesman, said.

Abbas, who was elected separately, wields authority and could veto the Cabinet. But Hamas' landslide victory in the January election gave them a total majority in parliament, making it difficult for Abbas to block the Islamic group.

Although the factions have all turned down Hamas' offer to join the new government, Haniyeh said they had "left the door open" for the radical Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine to join the Cabinet.

"I spoke on the phone with President Abbas last night," Haniyeh said at a news conference. "We have agreed to meet tomorrow evening in Gaza to present him the final government list."

Abbas' Fatah party refused to join Hamas because of its rejection of international demands to renounce violence and recognize Israel. One Hamas leader said if Israel wants a fight, the group is prepared for "all out war," reports CBS News correspondent Robert Berger.

Abbas was elected separately and wields considerable authority. However, Abbas cannot impose his own Cabinet lineup on Hamas, which swept January parliament elections and controls an absolute majority in the legislature.

Abbas is expected to put off parliamentary approval of the new government until after Israel's March 28 election, but spokesman Nabil Abu Rdeneh said the president would accept the Hamas Cabinet even if it does not adopt his more moderate platform.

"Abu Mazen will not place obstacles before the Hamas government," Abu Rdeneh told The Associated Press. However, Abbas, widely known as Abu Mazen will advise Hamas that by refusing to accept a more pragmatic program, they could "get into trouble," Abu Rdeneh said.

Mahmoud Zahar, a hard-line Hamas firebrand, will almost definitely be named Foreign Minister, according to a preliminary list of Cabinet ministers given to The Associated Press by anonymous officials in Hamas and the radical Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because the list has not been finalized.

Said Siyam, a popular Hamas lawmaker from Gaza, has been tapped for the Interior and Civil Affairs Ministries, which control three of the Palestinian's five security forces and is responsible for contacts with Israel's security services, the officials said.

Siyam, who is considered a relative moderate, was among hundreds of militants deported by Israel to south Lebanon in 1992. He recently joined a Hamas delegation to Moscow, where they met top Russian officials.

If the PFLP decides to join the Hamas government, it will be awarded the Finance Ministry, the officials said. If the PFLP stays out of the government, Omar Abdel-Razek, a professor at Nablus' a-Najah University, will be named Finance Minister. Abdel-Razek was released from an Israeli prison just a few days ago.

Two professors from the Islamic University in Gaza are likely to be named to the public works and higher education ministries, the officials said.

The wrangling over the new government comes at a time when some officials in the Fatah Party are calling on Abbas to resign and to dissolve the Palestinian Authority, to protest Israel's raid of a West Bank prison earlier this week. The raid, in which troops snatched Ahmed Saadat, the leader of a small PLO faction, and other suspects in the assassination of an Israeli Cabinet minister, was a major blow to Abbas' prestige.

If the Palestinian Authority were to be dissolved, Israel, as occupier of the West Bank and Gaza Strip, would be forced to assume responsibility for some 3 million Palestinians living there. The dissolution would also render Hamas' election victory irrelevant.

On Saturday, Abu Rdeneh said Abbas will not resign or break up the Palestinian Authority.

In other developments Saturday, Israeli troops left a West Bank village after a failed overnight arrest raid.

At the start of the operation late Friday, a 10-year-old Palestinian girl was killed when soldiers fired at a car she was riding in with her older brother and uncle, Palestinian witnesses and Israel Radio said. The witnesses said the soldiers were dressed in civilian clothes and fired without warning. The army declined comment.

After the initial shooting, soldiers surrounded a house where they believed three militants were holed up, and an army bulldozer began demolishing the building. However, the fugitives escaped.

In Gaza City, the designated Hamas prime minister, Ismail Haniyeh, was to hold a news conference at 4 p.m. Saturday to announce the formation of the Hamas government, said Hamas spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri.

Hamas officials said they are still waiting for a final word Saturday from the PFLP on whether it would join the government. PFLP officials have given conflicting signals on whether they would join.

Abbas was to travel from the West Bank to Gaza on Saturday for a meeting with Hamas leaders, his office said. In the meeting, Hamas is to present its Cabinet lineup and program. Abbas aides said he was expected to ask for revisions in the Hamas program.

Hamas has rejected demands that it moderate its views, despite threats by the West that it will cut off substantial foreign aid to the Palestinian Authority unless the new government renounces violence, recognizes Israel and promises to honor existing peace agreements.