Abbas and Haniyeh try 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.

Tensions remained high as thousands of Palestinians loyal to Abbas's Fatah faction took part in a funeral march for a commander who was killed in a barrage of rocket-propelled grenades fired by Hamas gunmen in Gaza yesterday.

''Blood for blood and aggression for aggression... and all the sons of the movement should retaliate to each aggression openly,'' a statement issued by Fatah in Gaza said.

At one of the funeral marches, members of Fatah's al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades threatened to assassinate Foreign Minister Mahmoud al-Zahar and Interior Minister Saeed Seyam of Hamas.

''Zahar and Seyam, you have to leave Gaza. We will tear your bodies to pieces,'' an al-Aqsa member screamed through a megaphone as gunmen fired into the air.

Overnight, Hamas-controlled militants and police forces stormed the house of senior Fatah leader Sufian Abu Zaida in northern Gaza Strip, smashing furniture. Abu Zaida, a former cabinet minister, was unhurt.

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 of Hamas 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.

Some Fatah gunmen expressed anger at Abbas for not sending forces to save Ghareeb, who had pleaded for help on Palestinian television.

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.

''Hamas and Fatah, you are brothers, please stop the fighting,'' cried an elderly woman as Ghareeb's funeral passed her house in the Jabalya refugee camp.

Haniyeh told reporters: ''The battle is not an internal battle, it is a battle against the occupation.'' Earlier 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. The army said two members of Islamic Jihad were seized.

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 KN1840