Abbas and Haniyeh agree to defuse tensions in Gaza

GAZA, Jan 5 (Reuters) Palestinian Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh said today he and President Mahmoud Abbas had agreed to keep gunmen from their rival Hamas and Fatah factions off Gaza's streets after clashes in which eight were killed.

Factional fighting has surged in Gaza and the occupied West Bank since Abbas challenged the ruling Hamas faction by calling for early parliamentary and presidential elections after talks on forming a unity government failed.

After late-night emergency talks, Haniyeh said he and Abbas had agreed to ''withdraw all gunmen from the streets and deploy police forces to keep law and order''.

Abbas made no public comment, but a diplomat who attended the talks and declined to be identified confirmed an agreement had been reached. It was the first meeting between Abbas and Haniyeh in two months.

Similar pacts in the past have been shattered swiftly by violence and Gazans said they feared another eruption of bloodshed later in the day when yesterday's dead are buried.

In a move that could fuel tensions, the United States will provide 86 million dollar to strengthen security forces loyal to Abbas, expanding US involvement in Fatah's power struggle with Hamas.

In fighting between rival Palestinian groups in the Gaza Strip yesterday, a policeman loyal to Haniyeh's governing Hamas movement was killed by Fatah gunmen.

Blaming the shooting on bodyguards of Colonel Mohammed Ghareeb of the Preventive Security Service, Hamas gunmen then besieged his home in the northern Gaza town of Beit Lahiya, killing Ghareeb and six of his men and wounding his wife.

Clashes also erupted in the nearby Jabalya refugee camp, where at least 30 people were wounded, hospital officials said.

The fighting spread overnight to the occupied West Bank, where unidentified gunmen critically wounded a Hamas activist near the city of Nablus, Hamas officials said.

Also today, Israeli forces raided the village of Attil near the West Bank town of Tulkarm in a search for a wanted Islamic Jihad militant, witnesses said.

A day earlier, Israeli forces had mounted a rare raid into the West Bank city of Ramallah in which hospital officials said four Palestinians were killed and at least 25 wounded.

REUTERS AKJ VV1614