Fatah and Hamas, the rival Palestinian groups, have held unofficial meetings in Cairo, Egypt's capital, ahead of a reconciliation conference scheduled for Thursday this week.

Wednesday's meetings, the latest in a series held in the past few weeks, will help pave the way for national dialogue, Nabil Amr, the Palestinian ambassador in Cairo, said.

The two groups agreed to resolve the fate of prisoners held by both sides "in a timeline not going beyond the end of the inter-Palestinian dialogue meetings," a joint statement they released said.

"A certain number of detainees will be freed right at the beginning of the dialogue," said the statement from Azzam al-Ahmad, leader of the Fatah bloc in the Palestinian parliament, and Mahmoud Zahar, a senior Hamas official.

Hamas members freed

The statement said: "Other detainees will be freed successively so that this issue will be totally closed before the end of the national Palestinian dialogue.”

Zahar said 80 Hamas members held in the West Bank, which is controlled by Fatah, have been released and that 300  were still being held.

A planned unity government by Fatah and Hamas will deal with foreign governments, co-ordinate reconstruction in the Gaza Strip and prepare for Palestinian presidential and legislative elections.

Nasser al-Shorafa, a Palestinian resident of Egypt, told Al Jazeera: "The crossing points are the main lifeline to Palestinians. With the gates closed, families have been separated and people starved."

"This should be at the centre of the talks," he said.

Fatah, the secular group headed by Mahmoud Abbas, the Palestinian president, and Hamas have long been rivals but their feuding boiled over in June 2007 when Hamas seized control of the Gaza strip.

Thursday's conference, which will also bring in other Palestinian factions, stems from Egyptian proposals for a lasting ceasefire following Israel's 23-day onslaught on Gaza.

More than 1,300 people were killed and buildings and infrastructure destroyed.