Fatah and Hamas officials agreed today to take steps to end violence between the two rival Palestinian movements.
A Hamas spokesman in Gaza, said an Egyptian security delegation had brokered the talks, which took place in the coastal strip.
"These efforts have been crowned by an agreement between Hamas and Fatah to stop tensions between the two sides and to bring the security situation under control," he said.
It was the first high-profile meeting in weeks between the two movements, whose power struggle sparked fighting this month between gunmen in which at least 19 people have been killed.
The intense fighting has been some of the worst intra-Palestinian violence since the Palestinian Authority was created in 1994.
The Hamas spokesman said that as part of the agreement, a joint trouble-shooting office manned by members of both factions would be set up to resolve issues that may spill over into violence. Officials said it could be set up as early as today.
He added that the two sides also agreed to end news conferences in which each faction accused the other of stoking tensions.
Earlier this week Ghazi Hamad, a senior figure in Hamas, published an article condemning internal violence and questioned whether it had become a "Palestinian disease".
Weeks of talks between Fatah's Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and Hamas on trying to form a unity government, and perhaps put an end to the violence, have so far failed.
Hamas, which is sworn to Israel's destruction, took power in March, after which the EU and United States imposed sanctions on its government, blocking direct aid and support on which the administration depended.
The measures were imposed because Israel, the United States and the European Union regard Hamas as a terrorist group. They say it must recognise Israel, renounce violence and respect existing peace agreements before sanctions can be lifted.