Gaza - Hamas Saturday accused the Palestinian Authority (PA) of supporting the Israeli blockade of the Gaza Strip in a bid to weaken the Islamic movement which controls the territory.

"The repeated calls by some of the PA officials that electricity and fuel supplies to Gaza should be cut reflect an intention to weaken Hamas movement," said Ayman Taha, a Hamas spokesman.

Israel sealed off the Gaza Strip on November 4 after an Egyptian- brokered ceasefire was rocked by a series of Israeli military operations and ensuing rocket fire from the territory by the armed Palestinian groups.

Owing to lack of fuel, the only power plant in the Strip has been shut down, threatening vital service sectors.

New York  - UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon reiterated Friday a request to Israel to allow the urgent delivery of humanitarian assistance to the Gaza Strip.

A UN spokeswoman said Ban "underscores the importance of having Israel urgently permit the delivery of humanitarian assistance to the civilian population of Gaza, and regrets that his calls have not yet been heeded."

The UN said living conditions in the Hamas-held Palestinian enclave have deteriorated because of the continued closure of major crossing points by Israel.

Beirut  - France is ready to send people to Lebanon to observe or to assist with the upcoming legislative elections planned for May 2009, said visiting French Prime Minister Francois Fillon said on Friday.

"France is ready, if Lebanon wishes, to provide technical support during the elections," Fillon said, speaking in Beirut to a group of French and Lebanese businessmen.

The French official stressed that the assistance could consist of helping organize the polls or providing observers as part of a European Union initiative.

Cairo - A Hamas official said his group will resume reconciliation talks with rival Fatah if that group releases all imprisoned Hamas members, a newspaper reported Friday.

"If (Palestinian President) Abu Mazen released the prisoners and stopped his security measures, talks would start immediately," Mussa Abu Marzouk, deputy head of Hamas' political bureau, told the Pan- Arab daily Asharq al-Awsat newspaper.

Reconciliation talks between the two sides have been on hold since Hamas officials notified the Egyptian government, which is hosting the talks, that they would not participate. The meeting had been scheduled to take place in early November.

Tehran - A senior Iranian cleric on Friday termed the requests by the United Nations nuclear watchdog from Iran as irrelevant and further criticized its head Mohamed ElBaradei for "ambiguous remarks."

"The IAEA should act impartially and within its defined framework and not follow accusations which have no documented proof," former president Akbar Hashemi-Rafsanjani said at the Friday prayer ceremony in Tehran.

Cairo - Seven countries from the Middle East and Africa met in Cairo on Thursday to discuss ways to stop piracy in the Red Sea after the kidnapping of Saudi supertanker "Sirius Star" with 100 million dollars worth of crude oil on board.

Participating countries will discuss how to share information on piracy cases through a centre that will trace and monitor shipping routes. They are also discussing joint training for their coast guards, according to diplomatic sources.