Mohamed Shubair, a said candidate to be the new prime minister of the Palestinian national unity government, said on Monday that he would not hesitate to accept the offer once it is officially presented.

Qatar's al-Jazeera satellite television on Monday quoted Shubair as saying that his name was in a list of candidate names recently presented to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas. Shubair said that as soon as he is officially offered the post by the president, he would accept it.

"I won't hesitate to accept the post, if this would contribute to ending the siege imposed on the Palestinian people for a longtime," al-Jazeera quoted him as saying.

Jabril Rajoub, a security advisor to President Abbas told reporters on Monday that there was a Palestinian consensus to choose Shubair as the prime minister of the new national unity government.

"Both Fatah movement and President Mahmoud Abbas have no objection that Dr. Mohamed Shubair takes the post of the new national unity prime minister," said Rajoub.

Shubair, 69, was famous for his academic activities and had been the president of the Hamas-dominated Islamic University for 13 years. He is close to Hamas but not a member.

Abbas and Prime Minister Ismail Haneya of Hamas have been engaged in talks for months to form a unity government to replace incumbent Hamas-led one to end the current political and economic crises in the Palestinian territories.

Earlier on Monday, sources closed to Hamas movement said that the maximum dateline for declaring the new national unity government would be as early as December.

President Abbas said days ago that the new government "would see the light before the end of November."
 
Editor: Yan