Italian Foreign Minister Massimo D'Alema said on Friday that the formation of a new Palestinian unity government could end a standoff between the Palestinian authorities and the European Union.
The former premier told reporters after a meeting of EU foreign ministers that there had been "unanimous" agreement that a unity government constituted "the real chance for a
breakthrough in the Palestinian situation".
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas is currently forming the government with the Islamist movement Hamas.
The new administration would replace the Hamas one which has been governing the Palestinian territories since March under the leadership of Prime Minister and Hamas heavyweight
Ismail Haniyeh.
The United States and the EU have boycotted the Hamas government and cut off aid to the Palestinian region because Hamas has refused to recognise Israel, renounce violence and
accept existing peace accords with Israel.
Hamas is hoping that the decision to from a new unity government will convince at least the EU to lift its embargo.
D'Alema said on Friday that "everyone agrees that this (the new government) must be welcomed as a great and positive development and that the EU must encourage Israel and the US
to see it as an important chance to relaunch the peace process and help the (Palestinian) territories emerge from their dramatic crisis".
"Naturally, we hope that the (Palestinian government's) platform is clear," added D'Alema, who is also Italy's deputy premier.
He stressed that the armed wing of Hamas would be expected to release an Israeli soldier seized in a cross-border raid last June.
The capture of Israeli Corporal Gilad Shalit prompted an Israeli offensive in the Gaza Strip which has killed more than 210 Palestinians, many of them civilians.
D'Alema also said that Israel should agree to release some 30 Hamas officials, including three cabinet ministers and 18 MPs, whom it is detaining.
Finnish Foreign Minister Erkki Tuomioja, whose country holds the rotating EU presidency, also said that the formation of the Palestinian unity government represented "hope of a breakthrough in the stalled relations with the EU".
"We hope that it will lead to the rapid release of the Israeli soldier," he added.
