Palestinian Prime Minister Ismail Haneya said on Friday that a new national unity government would be formed within three weeks.

"We hope that we will be able to set up the government in less than three weeks," Haneya said at a sermon at a Gaza City's mosque on Friday.

The remarks came one day after Haneya and his government resigned and President Mahmoud Abbas asked him to form a coalition government in line with the Mecca agreement signed by the two rival movements of Hamas and Fatah in Saudi Arabia last week.

The Palestinians hope a new power-sharing government would gain the recognition of the international community and help end Western boycott imposed on the former Hamas-led government.

On Thursday night, Haneya officially presented his resignation to Abbas and then the latter handed Haneya another letter of designation asking him to form the new government.

Haneya told reporters after the ceremony that "from now on I will start my negotiations with all political powers and factions."

Hamas, defeating the long-dominant Fatah, single-handedly formed a government last March but it was boycotted by the West due to its refusal to meet three demands of recognizing Israel, renouncing violence and abiding by the previous peace accords, set forth by the Quartet on the Middle East.

It was not clear if a new Palestinian government would be accepted by the Quartet, grouping the UN, the US, the EU and Russia, which conditioned that any Palestinian government should meet the aforementioned three key demands.

The Mecca agreement didn't mention the recognition of Israel. Instead, Abbas called on the future government "to respect international law and agreements signed by the Palestine Liberation Organization."

(Xinhua News Agency February 17, 2007)