Palestinian Foreign Minister Mahmoud Zahar, who is also an official of Hamas, announced on Monday night that Hamas and Fatah have agreed on a cease-fire in Gaza which will take effect in three hours.

The cease-fire would start from 3 AM (01:00 GMT) on Tuesday, Zahar declared after talks between Palestinian Prime Minister Ismail Haneya and the a top representative of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas.

According to the cease-fire, the two conflicting parties should withdraw their militants from the streets and remove all checkpoints.

It was reported that the two sides also agreed to resume dialogue during the talks with the presence of an Egyptian delegation, which has been busy in mediation in the past days.

The cease-fire was reached just less than a day after a suicide bombing attack in southern Israeli city of Eilat that killed three local Israelis.

Palestinians have been on the edge of civil war in the past few days with bloody bout of factional fighting between rival Hamas and Fatah.

The five-day refreshed fighting starting from Thursday has claimed 32 Palestinian lives.

(Xinhua News Agency January 30, 2007)