Local news websites quoted well-informed Palestinian sources as saying that a Qatari envoy arrived in Damascus, where the exiled leadership of Hamas politburo based, two days ago to try to end the ongoing disputes between Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and Hamas.

The report said that the Qatari envoy proposed forming a new technocrat-led cabinet instead of the current Hamas-led one, and nominating a new technocrat Premier that enjoys the world's support.

Dismissing the report as "totally untrue," Bahar said, however, that Hamas Prime Minister Ismail Haneya had been always calling for forming a national unity government.

Any government that aims at replacing Hamas-led government "will be of course totally rejected," Bahar asserted. Abbas has given Hamas until June 4 to back a proposal for establishing an independent Palestinian state alongside Israel or face a referendum within 40 days.

Hamas, which took power late March after defeating Abbas' Fatah movement in the January parliamentary elections, has refused to renounce violence, recognize Israel's right to exist and accept signed peace deals, the conditions set by Israel and western world for dealing with it.