The gap between Fatah and Hamas is very big despite the recent commitment to continue talks in Damascus, head of Fatah's unity talks delegation Azzam Al-Ahmad told the Jerusalem-based Al-Quds newspaper Thursday.

Outlining the basic divisions, Al-Ahmad said both sides claimed to be in charge of the legitimate security service, with Director of the PA's General Intelligence Majed Faraj and Fatah Central Committee member Sakher Bseiso holding firm on the belief that security services in the West Bank are "complete and legitimate and cannot be restructured,."

The officials, Al-Ahmad said, suggested that the Gaza forces be the ones restructured because they were more recently formed.

Hamas officials at the unity table, Al-Ahmad explained, made the counter-claim that the Gaza Strip security forces were formed more along the lines of the national agenda, born as they were through "the liberation of Gaza from the Israeli Occupation."

According to Al-Ahmad, Hamas delegate Musa Abu Marzouq reiterated that while the West Bank forces were created with foreign influence under Israeli rule it was the Gaza forces which should provide the true Palestinian example.

Expressing his frustration at the situation, Al-Ahmad said he felt "sorry that we wasted one year and half in talks with Hamas, which have resulted in nothing."