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CAIRO, Dec. 7 (Xinhuanet) -- Expanded truce talks to be held Sunday evening has been canceled, a Palestinian source told Xinhua. 'The talks to be attended by Egyptian intelligence chief OmarSuleiman, Palestinian Prime Minister Ahmed Qurei and delegations ofthe main 12 factions were canceled, and Qurei has left Cairo,' thesource said. The planned talks would discuss a possible comprehensive ceasefire with Israel in the coming period, a Palestinian diplomatic source said earlier. Earlier in the day, the 12 main Palestinian groups ended theirfour-day discussions after reaching a consensus on excluding Palestinian and Israeli civilians from attacks. The agreement was included in an eight-point declaration issued by the factions following the talks, said Mussa Abu Marzuk, head ofthe delegation from the Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas). The declaration could be seen as a compromise deal among theparticipating factions, which have been bickering over whether tooffer Israel a ceasefire. Representatives from the radical Islamic Jihad and Hamas hadonly agreed on stopping attacks on both Palestinian and Israelicivilians, while delegates from the mainstream Fatah movement hadtried hard to persuade the hardliners to accept a onditional ceasefire. Radical Palestinian groups have been suspicious of Israel'ssincerity for peace, given the fact that the previous truce dealwas easily collapsed in the wake of a series of Israeli targeted killings. Under Egyptian mediation, Palestinian militant groups agreed inlate June to suspend their anti-Israel attacks for three months. But the unilateral ceasefire collapsed after Israel killed asenior Hamas official, Abu Shanab, in a missile attack in lateAugust.
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