Gaza clashes continue as Hamas tightens grip

GAZA, June 14 (Reuters) Explosions and gunfire sounded across Gaza today as Hamas Islamist fighters battled forces loyal to Western-backed Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas for control of the Gaza Strip.

Residents said Hamas forces still appeared to be in control of considerable areas of the crowded territory and were surrounding forces of Abbas's secular Fatah movement in two of their bases in the north of Gaza City.

In the centre of the city, the focus of 40 km of impoverished urban sprawl along the Mediterranean coast, Hamas fighters were bombarding a major Fatah compound with mortars and demanding those inside surrender.

Hospital officials said a Hamas fighter died in his car overnight when it was hit by a rocket-propelled grenade at Rafah, in the south of the Strip near the Egyptian border.

More than 80 people, mostly armed men but also children and other civilians, have been killed since Saturday in the bloodiest violence between the factions since Hamas used its Gaza power base to win a parliamentary election early last year, ending the dominance Fatah enjoyed under the late Yasser Arafat.

Abbas spoke to the main Hamas leader in Gaza, Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh, by telephone late yesterday. Officials from both sides they expressed a common desire for the fighting to end but conditions for a truce have not yet been met.

Hamas officials said Haniyeh is demanding Abbas hand him full control of Palestinian security forces under the terms of an agreement forged under Arab mediation at Mecca which led to Haniyeh bringing members of Fatah into a unity cabinet in March.

Abbas, officials said, has insisted that Hamas must stop fighting before he will negotiate.

Fatah threatened on Tuesday to quit the unity government, a move that could let Abbas rule by decree -- although five days of fighting have shown that his authority does not extend far in Gaza.

A Fatah official said Abbas would issue an announcement on the government's future at around 1300 hrs IST.

Abbas is in the West Bank city of Ramallah. Analysts say a break with Hamas could divide the two territories Palestinians want for their state and leave Gaza and the West Bank estranged.

Israel, the United States and European Union all favour Abbas over Hamas, which has ties to Iran and Syria, but a supply of arms and training to forces loyal to the president has not prevented what appears to be a substantial success by Hamas fighters in seizing control of much of the Gaza Strip.

Each side accuses the other of mounting a ''coup'' and of atrocities on the battlefield.

Reuters SG DB1138