Hamas force should be dissolved-Fatah deputy PM

RAMALLAH, West Bank, May 19 (Reuters) Deputy Palestinian Prime Minister Azzam al-Ahmad said today a security force loyal to the Islamic group Hamas must be disbanded to end the latest round of factional violence in the Gaza Strip.

Al-Ahmad, a Fatah leader and an outspoken critic of Hamas, accused Hamas's Executive Force of carrying out executions that have pushed Palestinians to the brink of civil war.

He told Reuters the force was ''illegal'' because it violated orders issued by President Mahmoud Abbas of Fatah.

''I demand now the dissolution of the Hamas Executive Force and to integrate it into the security forces apparatus,'' al-Ahmad told Reuters, repeating calls he and other Fatah officials have made in the past.

Hamas officials say the Executive Force was created to combat lawlessness and accused al-Ahmad of colluding with Israel and the United States in seeking to eliminate the force.

At least 49 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza during nine days of fierce fighting between ruling Hamas Islamists and President Mahmoud Abbas's secular Fatah.

A ceasefire was declared today but it was unclear whether it would hold. Previous truces quickly broke down.

Abbas has called for the Executive Force to be disbanded and integrated into the Palestinian Authority's other security services, which are dominated by Fatah. The fate of the Executive Force has remained unsettled two months after the creation of a unity government between the rival factions.

Palestinian Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh and other Hamas leaders have rejected calls to disband the 5,600-strong force, which is seen as a counterweight to the existing security forces, including Abbas's elite Presidential Guard.

Hamas has accused Israel of conspiring to aid Fatah in a power struggle for control of Gaza, which Israeli troops and settlers quit nearly two years ago.

Israel has launched a wave of air strikes in the Gaza Strip targeting the Executive Force and Hamas's armed wing. Israel says it is trying to stop Gaza militants from firing makeshift rockets across the frontier into Israeli territory.

Hamas official Sami Abu Zuhri said al-Ahmed's comments ''reflected an Israeli desire to finish off the Executive Force and Hamas men''.

''The Executive Force is a legitimate force based on the decisions of the government and the president,'' Abu Zuhri said.

REUTERS AGL VC1846