Abbas says has right to sack Hamas government

RAMALLAH, West Bank, Dec 16 (Reuters) Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas today called for a political solution to resolve a Palestinian crisis but made clear he had the right to sack the Hamas government.

Abbas, making a much anticipated and lengthy speech on Palestine TV, blamed the governing Hamas movement for a crisis that has renewed fears of civil war. He has yet to comment on whether he would call early elections, a step his aides said he might threaten to take in the speech.

Internal tensions are at their worst in a decade after months of talks between Hamas and Abbas's Fatah on forging a unity government foundered, dashing Palestinian hopes that an end to crippling Western sanctions could be in sight.

''The crisis is getting worse ... Without a political agreement, security will remain disturbed,'' Abbas said.

Abbas added that he had the authority to dismiss the government.

''This is a constitutional right. I can do it whenever I want,'' Abbas said.

Aides to Abbas earlier said they expected him to say in his speech that he would allow one more attempt at forming a new government of technocrats, and that if that failed, he would call fresh parliamentary and presidential elections.

In recent violence, Abbas's forces wounded 32 Hamas supporters in Ramallah yesterday when they fired on protesters.

Gunbattles between the factions also erupted in Gaza.

Hamas, which surprised Fatah to win parliamentary elections in January, has said it would regard any call for fresh elections as a coup. Abbas was elected separately in early 2005 in a presidential poll that Hamas did not contest.

Khalil al-Hayya, the head of Hamas's faction in parliament, said yesterday that Hamas would not agree to an early election or a referendum on the issue. He did not say what action Hamas would take if Abbas called new elections.

REUTERS MS HT1705