Days after the resignation of Prime Minister Salam Fayyad, Palestinian Authority Chief Mahmoud Abbas pledged to launch talks “in near future” on forming a new national unity government.

Days after the resignation of Prime Minister Salam Fayyad, Palestinian Authority Chief Mahmoud Abbas pledged to launch talks “in near future” on forming a new national unity government.

"We will hold consultations in the near future to form a government," Abbas said late Thursday at a meeting of the executive committee of the Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO), which was attended by Fayyad.

PA Chief has been pressed by members of his Fatah party to form a national unity government that would guarantee Palestinian national reconciliation with the rival Hamas movement, according to a statement issued after the meeting.

The statement also called for the formation "as soon as possible of a national unity government comprising independent figures" in line with a 2011 reconciliation pact between Fatah and Hamas.

The two parties signed an agreement in Cairo in 2011, pledging to set up an interim consensus government of independents that would pave the way for legislative and presidential elections within 12 months.