Ramallah - Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas said Friday that he was working on sustaining the ceasefire Israel and the Palestinian factions have agreed on two weeks ago in the Gaza Strip.

He said in a news conference in Ramallah with the visiting Slovenian President Danilo Turk that "the first thing we want to do is to sustain the ceasefire."

He said that even though the 22 days of Israeli military assault on Gaza has ended, "there remains some problems we want to see end so that we can start rebuilding and providing the people of Gaza with their humanitarian needs."

Abbas said that after the ceasefire is sustained, the Palestinian Authority will focus on reaching national unity between the West Bank and Gaza Strip and establishing a national reconciliation government that will work on rebuilding the Gaza Strip.

The Palestinian leader criticized Hamas leader Khaled Mishal for suggesting forming a new organization that would replace the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO).

"When (Mishal) talks about doing away with the PLO, he wants to destroy something that took 44 years to build and is recognized by more than 120 countries," said Abbas. "If he wants to destroy this temple, he will not find anyone to stand with him."

He said that even though Hamas was able to overthrow the PA in the Gaza Strip in June 2007 "because we did not want to get into a military confrontation with it," the same will not be allowed to happen in the West Bank.

Abbas also said a peaceful solution with Israel could be reached in a short time with all that would be needed was for Israel to end its occupation, solve the refugee problem and allow an independent Palestinian state with Jerusalem as its capital. (dpa)