Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas has secretly met Khaled Mashaal, leader of the rival Hamas movement, in the Jordanian capital of Amman this week, a source said Friday.

Abbas, who also heads Fatah party, and Mashaal have agreed to meet again in Qatar on Sunday, said the source, an official from the Palestinian presidency.

During the two-hour meeting in Amman, Abbas and Mashaal talked about issues concerning the reconciliation agreement that Egypt brokered between Hamas and Fatah in May.

They have also talked about the exploratory discussions that Palestinian and Israeli negotiators held in Amman late last month under an international bid to resume stalled peace talks.

In November of last year, the two leaders met in the Egyptian capital of Cairo, where Mashaal said he had agreed with Abbas to cooperate as partners in national issues beyond the Palestinian reconciliation, including involving Hamas in consultations regarding the peace talks that Abbas seeks with Israel.

Hamas opposes negotiations with Israel and the Islamic movement is sworn to the destruction of the Jewish state.

Apparently trying to promote Hamas to the international community, Mashaal said after his Cairo meeting with Abbas that his movement would be following peaceful resistance for the time being.

His remarks are believed to have caused differences between the exiled leadership of Hamas, led by Mashaal, and Hamas officials in Gaza, where the constitutions of Hamas exist. Since them, Ismail Haneya, Hamas' prime minister in Gaza, has repeated that armed resistance is the only way to deal with Israel.

When they meet in Qatar on Sunday, Abbas and Mashaal are expected to talk about setting out the first article of the Egyptian-brokered agreement: forming a unity government.

The unity government is sought to restore political unity to the Gaza Strip and the West Bank, more than four years after Hamas routed pro-Abbas forces and took over Gaza.