Beirut: The Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO) has re-opened its Beirut office for the first time since the Israeli invasion of Lebanon in 1982.
However, the ceremony was snubbed by the ruling Hamas party because it was led by a member of the rival Fatah group.
Abbas Zaki cut a ribbon and raised the Palestinian flag at the PLO building in a suburb in the south of Beirut.
The Fatah official said: "Today Palestine returns to Lebanon and Lebanon returns to Palestine. I tell my Palestinian brothers that this office represents all Palestinians, be they in the political process or in the opposition."
But the significance of the new office was played down by Osama Hamdan, Hamas' representative in Lebanon.
He said: "The Palestinian representative office to be opened in Beirut represents only the PLO which does not represent all
the Palestinian people."
He has proposed a bi-partizan delegation be formed to hold talks with Lebanese officials on the conditions of the
350,000 Palestinian refugees in Lebanon.
