Palestinian caretaker PM asked to form new government

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas Tuesday assigned caretaker Prime Minister Rami Hamdallah to form the new government.

Hamdallah has got five weeks to form the new government as stipulated by the basic Palestinian law, reported Xinhua citing Nabil Abu Rdineh, the spokesperson of Abbas.

On June 23, Hamdallah had resigned after 17 days in office, protesting lack of enough authority and power as a prime minister.

At the time, Abbas asked him to stay as a caretaker prime minister for the West Bank-based government before he later took back his resignation.

Abbas and Hamdallah met at the Palestinian presidency headquarters in Ramallah for an hour before agreeing on the reassignment, a source said.

Accrediting Hamdallah to stay as prime minister comes a day before the end of a three-month ultimatum in which Abbas' Fatah party agreed with its rivals in Hamas to form a unity government.

Meanwhile, rejecting Hamdallah's reassignment, a Hamas spokesperson said: "This is a step that deepens the split and increases the crack in the internal Palestinian relations."