GAZA CITY - Incoming Palestinian prime minister Ismail Haniya of Hamas rejected a plan by Israel's acting leader Ehud Olmert, whose Kadima party was on course to narrowly win Tuesday's election, to unilaterally redraw the borders of the Jewish state.
"The Palestinian people cannot accept Olmert's plan to fix the borders unilaterally," said Haniya whose 24-member Hamas-dominated cabinet was earlier rubber-stamped by the Palestinian parliament.
He also called on Israel to take "courageous steps" to allow an "entirely sovereign" Palestinian state to come into being with Jerusalem as its capital.
"We want stability, calm and a complete, just and lasting peace," he said.
Speaking to AFP, Aziz al-Dweik, the Hamas speaker of the Palestinian parliament slammed Kadima, which exit polls showed had won between 29 and 32 seats in the 120-member parliament.
"Kadima is the worst party in Israel even if some of them are considered a moderate party. It thinks it's the only player in the region," Dweik said.
"Its victory signals the continued injustice to which the Palestinian people are victim because it leans towards the same unilateral policy of (comatose outgoing Israeli Prime Minister) Ariel Sharon," he added.
"Israel wants to impose unilateral solutions and it is pointless to talk with it because it believes we do not exist."
Olmert has vowed to separate Israel from the Palestinians through redrawing the borders of the state, withdrawing thousands of Jewish settlers from the West Bank while holding on to the largest settlement blocs.
03/28/2006 21:09 GMT