Saudi invites Palestinian leaders for talks in Mecca

RIYADH, Jan 28 (Reuters) Saudi Arabia invited Palestinian leaders for talks in the holy city of Mecca and the Hamas-led Palestinian government said today it had accepted the offer to meet rival faction Fatah.

The invitation from Saudi King Abdullah was announced on the third day of fierce clashes between Palestinians in Gaza in which 22 people were killed, heightening fears of civil war.

''I invite them all ... for an urgent meeting in brotherly Saudi Arabia at the sacred house of God (Mecca's Grand Mosque) to discuss disputes in a neutral (environment) without intervention from any other side,'' the official Saudi Press Agency (SPA) quoted King Abdullah as saying in an open letter.

The Palestinian Islamist militant group Hamas came to power last January, unseating President Mahmoud Abbas's once dominant Fatah.

''We welcome the invitation by His Majesty King Abdullah and the government appreciates this generous position, which comes in an attempt to resolve Palestinian internal differences,'' Palestinian Foreign Ministry spokesman Taher An-Nono said.

Azzam al-Ahmad, a senior Fatah official and aide to Abbas, said Fatah had not yet formally received an invitation and would wait until it arrived before responding.

Abbas and Hamas politburo chief Khaled Meshaal met in Damascus earlier this month to iron out their differences, but they said they needed to hold further talks.

''What is happening in the land of brotherly Palestine serves only the enemies of the Islamic and Arab nations and puts question marks in the minds of the international community which respects our just (Palestinian) cause,'' SPA quoted the king as saying in his letter.

REUTERS SP RAI2312