CAIRO - RIVAL Palestinian factions Hamas and Fatah have agreed to form a joint security force in the Gaza Strip and hope to announce a definitive reconciliation deal at the start of July, Fatah said on Sunday.

Agreement on a joint Gaza force, if confirmed, would represent a major breakthrough in months of talks and could see a Fatah presence back in the Palestinian territory for the first time since Hamas ousted them in 2007.

'There has been agreement in principle on the formation of a common force from the two factions to work in the Gaza Strip until the elections (which should be held) before next Jan 5,' senior Fatah official Nabil Shaath was quoted as saying by the official Egyptian news agency MENA.

Mr Shaath said the exact composition of the force had still to be decided. Delegations from Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas's Fatah party and the Islamist Hamas movement that controls Gaza are meeting in Cairo for a fifth round of unity talks under Egyptian mediation.

The two groups have been bitterly divided since Hamas seized control of Gaza in June 2007 after ousting Fatah forces loyal to Abbas.

Egyptian efforts to reconcile them have so far foundered amid disagreements on the composition and obligations of a proposed unity government.

Mr Shaath, a member of the Fatah delegation at the Cairo reconciliation talks, explained that five committees charged with security, government, elections, the Palestine Liberation Organisation, and lastly reconciliation would meet in seven weeks' time.

These meetings would be held 'in the presence of all Palestinian factions to discuss the definitive vision of the (reconciliation) agreement,' to be signed two days later, Mr Shaath said.

As soon as the accord has been announced, a force of Egyptian and Arab officers would be sent to Gaza to monitor its implementation and to help train and prepare the new security service, he said.

This fifth set of talks between Hamas and Fatah officials would continue into Monday to discuss questions related to a unity government, the electoral system and security, he added. -- AFP