Ramallah/Cairo  - Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas will ask Egyptian President Hosny Mubarak to postpone Palestinian reconciliation talks scheduled to resume in Cairo next week, a Palestinian official said Tuesday.

The Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) official, who spoke in condition of anonymity, said Abbas would make the request to Mubarak and Egypt's intelligence chief Omar Suleiman on the sidelines of the Non-Aligned Movement Summit in the Sinai resort town of Sharm el- Sheikh.

The summit brings representatives of 118 countries together this week. Foreign ministers began preliminary meetings on Tuesday.

"Abu Mazen (Abbas) will discuss with the Egyptian leaders the possibility of postponing the upcoming round of dialogue scheduled to take place in Cairo on July 25," said the PLO official.

Abbas would ask to postpone the talks because "the Fatah movement will be busy holding its sixth general assembly in Bethlehem on August 4."

Negotiators from rivals Fatah and Hamas failed on June 28 to resolve the question of control of security forces and the conduct of fresh Palestinian elections scheduled for January, but agreed to reconvene on July 25.

A senior Hamas leader announced Monday that representatives of the movement, which controls the Gaza Strip, would hold preliminary meetings with Fatah, which controls Palestinian-administered areas of the West Bank, in Cairo on July 18.

"The meeting between Hamas and Fatah leaders in Cairo is scheduled to evaluate the outcomes of the senior Egyptian delegation's contacts held with Palestinian leaders on the weekend," Ismail Radwan said in a statement.(dpa)