BACKGROUND: Timeline of Hamas-Fatah power struggle

Ramallah - President Mahmoud Abbas' decision to form a new transitional government follows years of stalemate between the rival Palestinian Fatah and Hamas movements. Following are highlights leading up to and consolidating the power struggle: January 2005: Abbas wins presidential elections, held some two months after the death of late Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat. January 2006: Separate parliamentary elections see the radical Islamist Hamas unexpectedly beating Abbas' secular, mainstream Fatah, ending years of traditional Fatah domination over Palestinian politics. Hamas wins mainly on an anti-corruption ticket, but its political platform conflicts with that of Abbas, chosen on a pro-peace programme calling for a two-state solution to the conflict with Israel. March 2006: Hamas forms government headed by Ismail Haniya. Fatah refuses calls to join. International community boycotts the government over its refusal to renounce violence, recognize Israel's right to exist and accept past interim peace agreements. June 2007: Fighting between Fatah and Hamas gunmen in Gaza escalates into a systematic and bloody assault by Hamas on the headquarters throughout the strip of Fatah-dominated security forces answering to Abbas. Abbas loses control of Gaza and responds by sacking Haniya, who ignores the dismissal. Abbas appoints Fayyad, an independent and internationally respected economist, to head an emergency government based in Ramallah. The result is a de-facto split between Gaza and the West Bank. January 2009: Abbas' term as president ends, but he vows to stay in power until parliamentary and presidential elections can be held simultaneously as per Palestinian law. His supporters argue the presidential elections in which he was chosen were held early due to Arafat's death. Critics, not least Hamas, deny Abbas' legitimacy. February 2009: The severing of contacts is all but complete. Egypt pushes the parties to hold reconciliation talks, the first round of which starts in February. The aim is to create a unity government that would pave the way for simultaneous presidential and parliamentary elections before the term of term of the current Hamas-dominated parliament in January 2010. March 2009: Fayyad resigns, hoping this will add pressure to the unity talks, but the stalemate remains. May 2009: A fifth round of talks in Cairo ends without a breakthrough. A new round is set for July. Abbas appoints Fayyad at the head of a broader government, believing he cannot hold on without a functioning cabinet until then. About half the seats are given to Fatah, but its parliamentary bloc, angry that not one of its own but rather Fayyad was chosen as prime minister, calls for a boycott.