Hamas Prime Minister Ismail Haneya in the Gaza Strip will not attend the Non-Aligned Movement Summit due to be held in the Iranian capital of Tehran in a few days, a spokesman said on Sunday.

Taher al-Noono, the spokesman of Haneya's government, said in a short press statement emailed to reporters that although Haneya had received an official invitation from the Iranian leadership to attend the summit, but he decided to decline it so as not to deepen the internal Palestinian division.

"Over the past few days, Haneya said he will go to Iran for the summit, but today he decided to apologize for not attending it because he doesn't want his participation to deepen the internal Palestinian, Arab and Islamic division," said al-Noono.

Hamas government's decision was made after the Palestinian National Authority (PNA) threatened to boycott the NAM summit if Haneya attends it.

Reyad al-Malki, the PNA minister of foreign affairs, had earlier told Xinhua that he received an official Iranian reiteration that Haneya will not attend the summit and that he was not officially invited by Iran.

Also, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas on Sunday stressed that the unity of the Palestinian worldwide representation should be upheld.