The line-up of an interim Palestinian government agreed on by rival movements Fatah and Hamas will be announced on February 18 in Cairo, a Palestinian official said on Monday.

"On the 18th of this month in Cairo, there will be a final declaration on the formation of the new government to be headed by President Mahmud Abbas," Fatah official Azzam Al-Ahmad told AFP.

Ahmad spoke by telephone from Doha, where Abbas and Hamas chief Khaled Meshaal on Monday signed an agreement that will see the president take on the role of prime minister at the head of the interim government.

The deal is the latest attempt by the rival movements to implement an agreement they signed last April in a bid to overcome long-standing divisions.

The accord called for the immediate establishment of a temporary government staffed by independent consensus figures that could supervise the run up to presidential and legislative elections within a year.

But implementation of the deal has stalled, with the establishment of the interim government stumbling over who would serve as prime minister.

Abbas was said to be insistent that his current prime minister, Salam Fayyad, be allowed to stay on in the post, citing his ties with donor nations who trust the technocrat.

But Hamas said publicly that it would not accept Fayyad, and discussions on the formation of the government as a whole stalled.