The suggestion from Ahmed Youssef, political advisor to Prime Minister Ismail Haniya, whom Abbas has vowed to charge with assembling the new government, flew in the face of an address by the Palestinian president to the United Nations.
His comments risked further complicating floundering talks between Hamas, which heads the incumbent government, and Abbas' Fatah party, on forming a coalition in the hope of ending a Western financial and political boycott.
"The national unity government does not recognize Israel in its political program. The government and the Hamas movement will be against recognizing Israel," Youssef said in Gaza City where talks on the new cabinet have stalled. "Our position to solve the crisis is a 10-year truce, which will be good for stability and prosperity," he said, calling on the Israelis to withdraw from Palestinian territory occupied in the 1967 Middle East war.
Haniya said that his Hamas movement accepted the creation of a Palestinian state on land occupied in 1967 in exchange for a truce with Israel. "We accept the creation of a Palestinian state on the 1967 borders in exchange for a truce," he told reporters after the main weekly Muslim prayers.
The idea of a long-term truce has been raised several times by Hamas since its election last January but has always been rejected by Israel.
Hamas, which took office in March after its upset parliamentary election victory, has always refused formally to recognize Israel's right to exist, a key condition imposed by the Jewish state and the West.
"The Islamists will not be part or head a government which recognizes Israel," Youssef said, although the spokesman for Haniya's government said that he was confident that the much-hyped new cabinet would take shape.
"There will be an important meeting when Mahmoud Abbas returns and we will clarify his statement to the UN," Ghazi Hamad said. "I hope we will reach an acceptable draft and complete discussions with him [Abbas] on the government that will be formed by Ismail Haniya."
The prime minister himself confirmed to journalists after the main weekly Muslim prayers that the national reconciliation document, signed by most Palestinian factions in late June, was the basis of the new government's platform.
The document calls for the creation of a Palestinian state in the 1967 territories and for anti-Israeli attacks to be "concentrated" in Gaza and West Bank, but Hamas has always denied that amounts to recognition of Israel.
Abbas froze negotiations on a unity government last week after Hamas leaders maintained that the accord does not include recognition of Israel. But he told the UN General Assembly in New York late Thursday that any new Palestinian government will recognize the Jewish state.
"I would like to reaffirm that any future Palestinian government will commit to all the agreements that the Palestine Liberation Organization and the Palestinian Authority have committed to," he told delegates.
He referred to letters exchanged in 1993 by the late Palestinian and Israeli leaders, Yasser Arafat and Yitzhak Rabin, which contained historic mutual recognition statements. Recognizing Israel, renouncing violence, and respecting signed agreements are key conditions set by the four sponsors of the stalled peace process to reverse a political and financial boycott of the Hamas-led government.
In Israel, a government spokesman immediately rejected Youssef's suggestion. "This does not interest us. What we demand from any Palestinian government to be able to resume dialogue is that it submit to the conditions set by the international community," Avi Pazner said.
Prime Minister Ehud Olmert was separately quoted as saying that he was prepared to negotiate a prisoner release with Abbas in exchange for the release of an Israeli soldier captured three months ago by Hamas and other militants.
© 2006 Agence France-Presse
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