"Progress toward peace will lead to a breakthrough in the settlement of the Middle East conflict," Ahmed Aboul Gheit said in an interview with Al Alam Al Yaum, an Egyptian newspaper.
"The peace process will, in turn, ensure the restoration of Palestinian unity and will put an end to the split between Fatah and Hamas," the minister said.
Recent internal clashes between Palestinian political factions saw the Hamas radical movement take control of the Gaza Strip away from the president-led Fatah party, and left the West Bank in the hands of Fatah, which is backed by the West and Israel.
Last week, Fatah leader Mahmoud Abbas visited Egypt and met with President Hosni Mubarak, who has joined other moderate Arab states in supporting Abbas as the legitimate Palestinian president.
His visit to the port city of Alexandria, on the Mediterranean, came two days after his first meeting in the West Bank with Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert. At the talks in Jericho, Olmert called for a swift resumption of negotiations to establish a Palestinian state.
Abbas earlier dissolved the Palestinian government and formed a new emergency Cabinet, with Salam Fayad replacing Ismail Haniya of Hamas as prime minister. He also announced he was considering the possibility of early legislative elections in the Palestinian territories.
However, he said elections would be held only following the reunification of the West Bank and the Gaza Strip.
"Regardless of the circumstances, we will not accept the division of our Motherland," Abbas said Thursday during his visit to Jordan. "Elections can only be held simultaneously in the West Bank and Gaza."
Hamas, which won a majority of the seats in parliament in a January 2006 election, has said it would be unconstitutional for Abbas to call early parliamentary and presidential elections, and threatened to bloc the initiative.
Parliamentary elections in Palestine are not scheduled until 2010, and the current interim Constitution has no provisions for calling early elections.
Meanwhile, the radical Islamist faction, unlike Fatah, refuses to recognize Israel, as demanded by the U.S. and other major Western powers.
The Egyptian foreign minister reiterated Thursday that Egypt continues to condemn violence between the warring factions, although it recognizes the right of the population on occupied territories to offer resistance.
"However, that resistance must be based on an understanding of the current situation and should ultimately lead to the establishment of an independent [Palestinian] state," Gheit said. "It must not result in an escalation of the crisis."
