Thousands rally in Gaza to back Hamas government

GAZA, Oct 6 (Reuters) Tens of thousands of Hamas members crammed into a Gaza stadium today in a show of support for the movement's government after Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas threatened this week to dissolve the administration.

Many waved green Hamas flags and shouted praise for Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh of Hamas, who was later expected to address the crowd in the Gaza Strip's main soccer ground.

Haniyeh is embroiled in an increasingly bitter power struggle with President Abbas over failed talks to form a unity government that Palestinians had hoped would lift a Western aid embargo.

Clashes earlier this week between Hamas gunmen and forces loyal to President Abbas's Fatah movement have fuelled fears of civil war.

At least 15 people have been killed in the worst internal bloodshed in Gaza and the occupied West Bank in a decade.

Showing increasing impatience, President Abbas on Wednesday said he might sack the government over its refusal to agree a political platform for a unity coalition that would recognise Israel.

Western nations imposed sanctions after Hamas took power in March over the group's refusal to recognise Israel, renounce violence and accept interim peace deals with the Jewish state.

One Palestinian official who attended a meeting between the president and US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice on Wednesday said President Abbas told her he had given Hamas less than two weeks to agree a platform that satisfied those three demands.

Hamas has denied reneging on an earlier unity government agreement with Abbas and accused Fatah of trying to topple the government. Hamas defeated Fatah in January elections.

REUTERS SHB PM1728