GAZA, (PIC)-- The Hamas Movement on Saturday described American secretary of state Condoleezza Rice's visit to the region as "ominous" and aims at foiling Palestinian national reconciliation.

Fawzi Barhoum, a Hamas spokesman in Gaza, said in a press release that Rice's visit expected later today was "unwelcome" and bode ill for the Palestinian people.

The visit falls in line with the American continued efforts to abort any Palestinian national reconciliation specifically between Hamas and Fatah factions especially after the Arab summit's preliminary meeting adopted the Sana'a declaration, he elaborated.

"We do not expect this visit to bring any good to the Palestinian people or its usurped rights," he underlined.

Barhoum said that Rice's shuttle visits to the region only targets boosting Israel's security and pressuring the PA leadership and the "illegitimate" government of Salam Fayyad to enhance security coordination with Israeli occupation and to exercise more repression on Palestinian resistance fighters.