A leading member of the Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas entered Egypt from Gaza on Thursday to resume talks with the Egyptian government on arrangements at the border, a security source said.

Mahmoud al-Zahar, a Gazan who was Palestinian foreign minister in a short-lived government led by Hamas, crossed with about four other Hamas officials and headed for the coastal town of El Arish, the capital of the Egyptian border province.

Last month Hamas members blew holes in the border between Gaza and Egypt and knocked down the metal fence so that Palestinians could seek relief from an Israeli blockade.

Over a period of almost two weeks hundreds of thousands of Palestinians visited Egyptian towns in north Sinai, stocking up on goods which had become scarce in Gaza.

But Egyptian police have since resealed the border and Cairo has not given any public commitment to ease the restrictions on the movement of goods and people, as Hamas has requested.

A senior Egyptian security source said Zahar would hold talks at a hotel in El Arish with Egyptian security chief Omar Suleiman, Cairo's pointman on dealings with the Palestinians.

They will talk about securing the border and reopening the Rafah crossing under the supervision of the Palestinian Authority of President Mahmoud Abbas, another official said.

The Egyptian government says it would like the Palestinian Authority to take charge at the crossing point, but Abbas and his Fatah group have little influence in Gaza, where Hamas took control in June after a conflict with Fatah.