http://www.english.hadhramaut.info Fatah, Hamas to meet in Damascus on Oct. 20 over reconciliation: Official [The Source: RAMALLAH/hadhramaut.info/sabanews.net - 06/10/2010] A senior Palestinian official announced on Wednesday that a second meeting between the leaders of the two Palestinian rival groups Islamic Hamas movement and Fatah party will be held in Damascus on Oct. 20, according to Xinhua. Azzam el-Ahmad, Fatah central committee member, told reporters that the meeting aims at resuming the talks on reaching an inter- Palestinian reconciliation that would end more than three years of rifts and disputes.Last month, leaders of the two groups held talks in Damascus and announced that they had overcome disputes over the issues of elections and reforming Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO).The last outstanding issue, according to the two groups' officials, is the issue of reforming the security apparatuses and forming a highest Palestinian security committee to be responsible for reforming the security and police forces."There had been contacts over the past few days between us and Hamas leaders and we agreed to hold another meeting in Damascus on Oct. 20 to resume our reconciliation talks," said el-Ahmad.The two groups' leaders had also agreed that their second meeting would focus on finalizing other outstanding issues and agree on a final form of joint understanding among all other Palestinian factions.After reaching to a joint understanding, the leaders of all factions, including Hamas, will head to Cairo to sign on an Egyptian-drafted pact of reconciliation presented to the Palestinians last year.Fatah had agreed to sign on the pact immediately, but Hamas refused to sign saying that there were some reservations mentioned in the draft of the pact that need to be amended.Meanwhile, amid efforts to resume the reconciliation talks, tension between Fatah and Hamas had mounted this week, where el- Ahmad slammed Hamas leaders' statements saying that reconciliation statement will not be resolved as long as the security issue is not resolved."Such statements aim at disturbing the atmosphere of reconciliation and show that some Hamas figures don't want the reconciliation or ending the rift because they are getting benefits out of it," said el-Ahmad.