Nasser el-Dein al-Sha'er, the incoming Deputy Prime Minister and Minster of High Education, said on Tuesday that the new Hamas-led cabinet was the representative of the Palestinian people.

"This new cabinet is not a cabinet of Hamas, but one of the Palestinian people," Al-Sha'er, a member of Hamas, said in an interview with the Palestinian radio "Voice of Palestine". "We have to separate a Hamas-led cabinet from Hamas itself," said al-Sha'er.

He believed the new cabinet is sure to win a parliamentary vote of confidence as Hamas enjoys an overwhelming majority in the Palestinian Legislative Council following its election victory in January.

Two thirds of the 24-member new cabinet are technocrats and independents though Hamas takes control of such key posts as foreign, interior and finance ministers.

He said that the program presented by Hamas prime minister-designate Ismail Haneya to the PLC session on Monday committed the new government to the struggle for an independent Palestinian state with Jerusalem as its capital.

"We want to defend our people instead of launching a war," al-Sha'er said.