Palestinian Prime Minister and senior Hamas leader Ismail Haneya said on Sunday that holding referendum in the Palestinian territories is "illegal".

"Any referendum taking place in the Palestinian territories is illegal," Haneya told a press conference in Gaza City, adding however that "from a political point of view, the referendum needs intensive study."

Haneya, meanwhile, urged all parties to continue with the national dialogue which started ten days ago to solve political differences between Hamas and President Mahmoud Abbas' Fatah.

On May 25, Abbas opened the dialogue by asking Palestinian factions to accept the so-called prisoners' initiative by Sunday or he would put the proposal to a referendum within 40 days.

The document which was drafted by Palestinian leaders jailed by Israel called for, among other things, the establishment of an independent Palestinian state on the territories Israel occupied in 1967 Middle East war.

Hamas, which remains committed to the destruction of Israel, has so far refused to accept the document which is widely seen as implicit recognition of the Jewish state.

Haneya also called for the dialogue to be moved to Gaza from the West Bank city of Ramallah.

"Moving the dialogue to Gaza gives better chances to make it successive," Haneya said, adding that "traveling inside Gaza is easier and that all factions are based there."

The Hamas-led government has been boycotted by Israel and its Western allies as it refuses to renounce violent resistance, recognize Israel's right to exist and abide by signed peace deals with Israel.

(Xinhua News Agency June 5, 2006)