Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas Monday urged his arch rival, the Islamist movement Hamas which rules the Gaza Strip, to agree on a unity government that would accept agreements signed with Israel, dpa reported.

Addressing young Palestinians at his Ramallah headquarters, Abbas expressed hope that the latest round of Palestinian unity talks taking place in Egypt Monday, would reach an agreement on a unity government that would allow reconstruction of the Gaza Strip and holding presidential and legislative elections by January 24, 2010.

"I call on the dialogue in Cairo to agree on a government that will run the country, reunite it and rebuild Gaza, then go for elections," he said. "We cannot rebuild Gaza without this government."

Abbas said he was not asking of Hamas to accept past interim peace agreement that call for a two-state solution to the conflict, but only of the unity government to do so. Hamas does not accept the Oslo interim agreement signed by the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), dominated by Abbas' Fatah movement, with Israel in 1993.

In previous rounds of talks in Cairo, it has thus far refused to accept a unity government platform that recognizes Israel and accepts past agreements.

Abbas said he was ready to guarantee honest elections and if Hamas wins, he will hand over power to it "because we believe in democracy." He said that if elections were not held by January 24, then "there will be no legitimacy to anyone - not the government, not the parliament and not the president."

The Palestinian president said he wants to continue negotiations with Israel, but stressed that these negotiations will resume only on the basis of the Arab peace initiative, the two-state solution and the road map peace plans which calls for total freeze on settlement activities, including natural growth, and removal of checkpoints.

"This is our position," he said, "and we said it to the Americans, to the Europeans, to Russians and to the rest of the world. We are not putting pre-conditions."

Abbas defended arrests of Hamas activists in the West Bank stressing that "we are not suppressing the resistance." He said he cannot allow anyone to undermine Palestinian security in the West Bank.