Speaking to reporters after a three-and-half-hour meeting with Abbas at the latter's headquarters in Gaza City, Haneya said that the meeting agreed to form a joint ministerial panel to continue discussions on resolving all outstanding issues.

"This was the first meeting of its kind which was held between the government and the president after the government was sworn in five weeks ago," he said.

He said that the meeting was "responsible and frank," adding that many issues were tackled, including the financial crisis and economic problems.

"I explained to the president that the crisis was not created by the government, but by some international bodies, mainly the United States and Israel," said Haneya.

"The government does not have any problem in fund-raising and getting fund from Arab and Islamic nations. The problem is related to how to get this aid and fund," he said.

"We agreed that solving the crisis is not only responsibility of the government, but also responsibility of the president as well as factions, banks and monetary authorities," he said.

He said that such a crisis was created as pressure on the government to change its position and yield to conditions, "but I want to tell them that the pressure will never make us surrender."Meanwhile, Nabil Abu Rudeineh, presidential spokesman, told reporters after the meeting that the major concern of the president is how to end suffering of the Palestinian people and find a solution to the crisis.

"The meeting was serious, frank and in-depth. The two sides discussed how to find a quick mechanism to solve the crisis," he said, adding the president will help the government according to the constitution.

The Hamas government has failed so far to pay March and April salaries for over 160,000 government employees due to the West's cutoff of crucial aid.

However, the government has recently announced that it has garnered enough aid to pay the salaries, but the delivery of the much-needed money has been delayed since no local or regional bank is willing to help transfer the money out of fear for possible sanctions by the United States which is heading the campaign to isolate the Hamas government.

In response to Hamas' persistence in refusing to recognize Israel's right to exist, renounce violence and honor previous Palestinian-Israeli agreements, the United States and the European Union have suspended direct aid to the Hamas government.

Israel, meanwhile, has halted the monthly transfer of about 50 million U.S. dollars of tax revenues it collects on behalf of the Palestinians.