Fatah brings forces into Gaza from Egypt- sources

JERUSALEM, May 15 (Reuters) Hundreds of fighters loyal to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas's Fatah faction crossed into Gaza from Egypt today as possible reinforcements in fighting against Hamas militants, Western sources said.

Fatah said the group that crossed into Gaza did not do so to fight Hamas.

The Rafah border crossing between Gaza and Egypt was briefly opened to readmit a 450-strong Fatah contingent into the coastal strip, according to the sources, who spoke in Israel on condition of anonymity.

The sources said the crossing was opened, with Israeli consent, in only one direction to allow in the Fatah contingent. Once they crossed into Gaza, the crossing was re-closed.

The men were not carrying heavy equipment.

The move came as fighting intensified in Gaza between Abbas's Fatah forces and those loyal to the ruling Hamas movement.

In the fiercest battle, at least eight members of Abbas's Presidential Guard were killed in an attack by Hamas gunmen near Gaza's Karni commercial crossing with Israel, security officials said.

''The role of the security forces is to protect the security of the Palestinian people and not to take part in internal fighting,'' Tawfiq Abu Khoussa, Fatah's spokesman in Gaza Strip and the West Bank.

''They had been sent for training. It was a rehabilitation course that had nothing with any intention of fighting Hamas, or anyone else,'' he added.

Israeli Defence Minister Amir Peretz said Israel would not intervene in the fighting.

The 450 fighters are loyal to Abbas's national security adviser, Mohammad Dahlan.

Western officials say Dahlan, recuperating from leg surgery in Egypt, recently sent about 500 men loyal to Fatah to Egypt to receive more advanced instruction in police tactics, according to Western diplomats.

Abbas could also dispatch thousands of reinforcements from the occupied West Bank and draw upon the Jordan-based Badr Brigade, a Fatah-dominated force that includes at least 1,000 members.

But a senior Western diplomat involved in the matter played down the chances that Abbas would deploy either his West Bank or Jordanian-based forces.

''They won't go,'' the diplomat said.

Israel has signalled support in the past for Badr's deployment in the Gaza Strip, but US and other Western officials have played down their readiness.

REUTERS SLD KN1643