The Islamic Hamas movement on Monday suspended the work of the Palestinian Central Elections Commission (CEC) in the Gaza Strip, a day before the committee started registering new voters.

The suspension, which Hamas said is temporary, is the latest in a series of agreements' repeals, committed by Hamas and its main rival, President Mahmoud Abbas' Fatah party.

Salah al-Bardawil, a spokesman for Hamas, said the decision to stop the voter register "does not mean that Hamas has receded the understandings to achieve reconciliation."

He said that pro-Abbas forces should stop cracking down against Hamas members and supporters in the West Bank. Al-Bardawil considered the arrests against Hamas members as "obstacles contradicting with the reconciliation."

Hamas argues that it allowed the CEC to operate in Gaza in May as part of "synchronous measures" that every Palestinian adversary should take in the land under its control.

The halting of the CEC work came as banners urging people to update their registration as voters decorated the streets of the Gaza Strip. There are about 250,000 eligible new voters who should have their names in the electoral register, which has not been updated since Hamas took over Gaza by force in 2007.

Sami Abu Zuhri, another Hamas spokesman, said that Hamas supporters in the West Bank will not be able to register in the CEC records, blaming "a policy of security repress" by the Fatah- led forces.

Jameel al-Khaldi, the CEC general director in Gaza, said delaying the registration of voters means that parliamentary and presidential elections will be delayed as well.

In May, Hamas and Fatah reached a deal to allow the CEC to work in Gaza. According to the deal, discussions to form a transitional government should have started as well.

The interim government would be headed by Abbas, according to a Qatari-brokered deal between the two movements.