Senior officials of the Palestinian rival Fatah and Hamas movements voiced their hope that an upcoming inter-Palestinian national unity dialogue would be held successfully, the Egyptian MENA news agency reported on Wednesday.

The remarks were made by Hamas' senior official Mahmoud al- Zahar and head of the Fatah parliamentary bloc Azzam al-Ahmed at a joint press conference following their delegations' meeting on Wednesday.

After three rounds of talks in the past two days between representatives of the two Palestinian factions in Cairo, the two groups agreed to "halt hostile media campaigns, political arrests and to release a number of detainees held by the two movements."

The two groups reached the understandings in a bid to render the Egyptian-brokered inter-Palestinian national unity dialogue, set to start on Thursday in the Egyptian capital.

The agreement is meant to set the scene to render this dialogue a success, said a statement issued after the meeting of the two Palestinian groups.

Delegations of Fatah and Hamas arrived in Cairo on Tuesday to attend the national unity dialogue hosted by Egypt.

Egypt has been endeavoring to broker a reconciliation deal among Palestinian factions. The last round of inter-Palestinian dialogue was thwarted by Hamas last November, for the alleged crackdowns against its members in the Fatah-dominated West Bank.

(Xinhua News Agency February 26, 2009)