For Vesten vil spørsmålet om Salam Fayyad er medlem av en ny teknokratisk palestinsk samlingsregjering, være en viktig indikator. Men Hamas sier nå at Fayyad er totalt uakseptabel.

Dermed stiller Hamas sine venner, som Norge og Jonas Gahr Støre, i en vanskelig posisjon. Spørsmålet er hvor ettergivende Mahmoud Abbas vil være.

Sentralkomiteen i Fatah vedtok i helgen at Salam Fayyad er deres kandidat til statsminister.

But Hamas has already rejected Mr. Fayyad’s nomination, saying that the new prime minister should come from Gaza.

“For us, Fayyad is unacceptable because his name is connected with a black phase in the history of the Palestinian people,” said Taher al-Nounou, a Hamas official in Gaza, who blamed Mr. Fayyad for deepening the split, closing Hamas institutions in the West Bank and pursuing security cooperation with Israel.

Both Fatah and Hamas figures said they thought the issue would not be solved in this next round of talks. “There is no deadline,” said Muhammad Shtayyeh, a member of the Fatah Central Committee, speaking by phone from Ramallah in the West Bank. “We will try to finish things in this round, but I think it will take longer.”

Mr. Shtayyeh foresaw more problems in other appointments, like the minister of interior, who has responsibility for the security forces. He and others said these details would ultimately have to be resolved by Mr. Abbas and Khaled Meshal, the Damascus-based leader of Hamas.

Still, Palestinian analysts suggest that the problems may run much deeper.

“I am worried,” said Mahdi Abdul Hadi, director of the Palestinian Academic Society for the Study of International Affairs, an independent institute in East Jerusalem, and one of a group of independent Palestinians who encouraged the unity accord.

“It is not a question of appointing a prime minister, but of the political will to share power. I do not see it,” he said.

Palestinian Unity Effort Shows Cracks as Factions Disagree Over Choosing Leader