Cairo: Hamas today agreed to a phased truce that would only extend to the West Bank in a second stage in return for an end to Israel's blockade of Gaza, Egypt's official MENA news agency said.

Senior Hamas official Mahmud al-Zahar, a former Palestinian foreign minister, said that the Islamist group had agreed to a ceasefire in Gaza first, which would be extended to the West Bank within six months, MENA reported.

Zahar spoke after he and former interior minister Said Siam held talks with Egypt's pointman on Palestinian affairs, intelligence chief Omar Suleiman.

Earlier, a Hamas official in Gaza told AFP that Hamas was mulling the idea of the phased truce.

Source : PTI