GAZA CITY, Palestinian Territories (AFP) - Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas is to unveil a unity government by Thursday, ending seven years of rival administrations in the West Bank and Gaza, an official said.

"We have finished consultations on the national consensus government," Mr Azzam al-Ahmed, an envoy from Mr Abbas's Fatah movement, told AFP on Tuesday after talks in Gaza with its Hamas rulers.

"The announcement will come from the president in the next two days."