Tunisian President Delays Gaza Visit

Tunisian President Moncef Marzouki has decided to postpone a visit to Gaza until the end of March so as not to impede with Palestinian reconciliation efforts, his office announced on Sunday.

It said the delay to the visit planned for February 9 was agreed at a meeting between Marzouki and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas in Addis Ababa on the sidelines of an African Union summit.

The decision to hold off until the end of March was taken to allow "the reconciliation" to go ahead between Abbas' Fatah movement and the Islamist movement Hamas which rules the Gaza Strip, the office said.

Hamas and its rival have been taking tentative steps to restart long-stalled reconciliation efforts, seeking to implement an agreement signed in Cairo in 2011 and intended to lead to new elections.