Fatah supporters flee Gaza as Abbas sets up new gov't

GAZA, June 16 (Reuters) Hundreds of Fatah loyalists fled Hamas-controlled Gaza by land and sea today as Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas prepared to swear in a new government in the West Bank that will bring an end to a US-led aid embargo.

An American envoy told Abbas during a meeting today in the West Bank city of Ramallah that the United States would lift a ban on direct aid to the new government, a senior Palestinian official said.

''Abbas was informed the American administration will immediately lift the sanctions once the emergency government is announced,'' the official said as Abbas met US Consul-General Jacob Walles.

About 50 Fatah gunmen and 200 other demonstrators stormed a Palestinian parliament building in Ramallah to protest against Hamas's bloody takeover of Gaza, but no injuries were reported.

The militants grabbed the deputy speaker, who is aligned with Hamas, and dragged him from the building, witnesses said. He was not hurt.

Many Fatah supporters who live in Gaza fear reprisals from Hamas militants after Abbas sacked the Hamas-led government on Thursday.

An aide to Abbas said as many as 3,000 Fatah supporters left through the Erez Crossing between Gaza and Israel, but Israeli officials at the crossing disputed that figure.

Other Palestinian officials said hundreds of Fatah supporters were allowed by Israel to exit Gaza through Erez and then travel to the occupied West Bank.

In the West Bank city of Hebron, al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades militants, an offshoot of Fatah, stormed Education Ministry offices, firing in the air and demanding that Hamas supporters stop working there.

Arab governments said they would support Abbas and called for a return to the situation before the Islamist movement's bloody takeover of the coastal strip.

HANIYEH PLEDGE Ismail Haniyeh, who became prime minister after Hamas won parliamentary elections in January 2006, has refused to accept his dismissal.

In an interview with a French newspaper, he ruled out setting up a Palestinian state in the Gaza Strip separate from the West Bank.

''Separation is not on the agenda and never will be,'' Haniyeh said.

Abbas has tapped Salam Fayyad, a Western-backed independent lawmaker, to serve as prime minister of the emergency government in what Hamas said amounted to a coup.

''Salam Fayyad will finalise the formation of his government and the new government will be sworn in today,'' the Abbas aide said, adding the government would be comprised of 11 lawmakers.

The United States, Israel and European states plan to open the financial taps to the new government after a 15-month embargo of the Hamas-led administration pushed the Palestinian Authority to the brink of financial collapse.

Palestinian lawmaker Hanan Ashrawi said Fayyad's cabinet faced daunting challenges, chief among them ''to ensure the rule of law and to prevent the spread of lawlessness from Gaza to the West Bank.'' The security challenge was highlighted in orders issued by Palestinian Police Chief Kamal el-Sheikh, who is based in the West Bank, to his men in Hamas-controlled Gaza.

He ordered the police, who have long been dominated by Fatah, neither to report to work nor to follow Hamas's orders.

Hamas's armed wing said it discovered today seven bodies, including Hamas militants and civilians, inside an underground facility that had been controlled by Fatah forces.

Abbas sacked the three-month-old unity government he formed with Hamas on Thursday after the group routed his forces in the Gaza Strip and began imposing a new order in the enclave after days of bloody civil war.

Under Palestinian law, Abbas can declare a state of emergency for up to 30 days. The state of emergency could be extended for another 30 days, but only after winning the approval of two thirds of the parliament.

Hamas has a majority in the parliament -- although Israel's arrests of nearly half of Hamas's deputies put that majority in doubt and also make it hard to reach a quorum. That could enable Abbas to keep the state of emergency in place longer.

Some Fatah and US diplomats have argued that Abbas could rule by decree for six months to a year ahead of new elections.

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