Gaza City/Cairo  - Egypt will invite Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and Hamas political leader Khaled Meshaal to Cairo to sign a deal establishing a Palestinian "national unity" government in early July, a Saudi newspaper said Thursday.

The Saudi daily newspaper Okaz cited an unnamed Palestinian source it said was close to the negotiations as saying Egypt would invite the leaders of the rival factions to Cairo to ink an agreement establishing an interim government to administer the Gaza Strip and the West Bank until fresh elections can be held next year.

Hamas' spokesman in Gaza denied that a date had been set for Meshaal, who lives in exile in Damascus, to travel to Cairo.

"The talks are still in progress, and still face many obstacles," Fawzi Barhoum, Hamas' spokesman in Gaza, told the German Press Agency dpa.

It was still too early to fix a date when Hamas might agree on the shape of a national unity government with Abbas' Fatah faction, he added.

Okaz said Egypt would once again host representatives of more than a dozen Palestinian factions in Cairo to hash out an agreement on the formation of a Palestinian government early next week. (dpa)