UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said on Saturday he had no plans to meet Palestinian Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh during his Middle East tour.
"I will be meeting with President (Mahmoud) Abbas and other members of the cabinet. At this time I will say that my itinerary schedule at this time does not include my meeting with Prime Minister Haniyeh," he told a news conference in Cairo.
Palestinian cabinet spokesman Ghazi Hamad, like Haniyeh a member of the Islamist movement Hamas, confirmed that no meeting had been arranged but said it would be wrong and discriminatory for Ban not to see Haniyeh.
The United Nations is part of the international Quartet, which is demanding that the Palestinian government recognize Israel, renounce violence and accept old agreements with Israel.
Haniyeh, as a leading member of Hamas, has not accepted the conditions of the Quartet, which also includes the United States, Russia and the European Union.
Hamad said: "(Failure to meet Haniyeh) would be wrong because this is a government of national unity that represents the entire Palestinian people and the United Nations is supposed to be an organization that represents all countries and not a political organization.
"It will not serve to create an atmosphere of stability ... We hope the United Nations will play a bigger role in narrowing the gaps and in opening dialogue between countries and not to adopt the style of boycott," he added.
Ban said he might also meet the Palestinian ministers of finance and foreign affairs, either with Abbas or separately. The two ministers are independent of both Hamas and of Abbas' secular Fatah movement.