Hamas unable to convene parliament to counter Abbas

GAZA, July 15 (Reuters) Hamas Islamists failed today in a bid to convene the Palestinian parliament to challenge the legality of the government just installed by President Mahmoud Abbas to replace a Hamas-led administration.

The session was not able to start because a quorum could not be assembled. Hamas lawmakers said just 28 of 132 legislators turned up for the session, held jointly in Gaza and the occupied West Bank.

Hamas needed at least 67 for a quorum. Fatah boycotted the session, calling it illegal. In lieu of the session, Hamas lawmakers held an informal "consultative" meeting over the steps taken by Abbas.

Acting speaker Ahmed Bahar, a Hamas leader in Gaza, used his mobile phone to contact lawmakers in the West Bank city of Ramallah.

Hamas accused Fatah, the secular faction led by Abbas, of closing down a meeting room in Ramallah to prevent the lawmakers from using a video link that normally connects the two chambers.

Hamas won a majority of the seats in parliament in a January 2006 election, but Israel has arrested about half the group's 74 legislators and it can no longer assemble a majority.

Last week, Hamas boycotted a parliamentary session called by Abbas, saying that session was illegal and would have been used by Fatah to take over leadership posts now held by Hamas.

"We are here to send a clear message that the parliament must not be undermined. No one must undermine the Palestinian Basic Law," Bahar said, referring to the interim constitution.

Abbas disbanded the Hamas-led government and formed an emergency administration after the Islamist group seized the Gaza Strip by force on June 14. Since then, he has ruled by decree.

Responding to constitutional limits on the state of emergency, Abbas on Friday swore in three new ministers and reappointed Salam Fayyad as prime minister. Abbas's aides say his actions were in keeping with the Basic Law.

Hamas rejected Fayyad's enlarged cabinet.

"I hold Fatah and the president personally responsible for trying to put the parliament to death, with the help of the Zionist enemy who is keeping over 40 brothers in jail," said senior Hamas lawmaker Youssef al-Shrafi.

Shrafi said the only way out of the current impasse was through dialogue between Hamas and Fatah.

The main authors of the Basic Law said last week that Abbas was overstepping his authority and was required to obtain parliamentary approval to keep in place the government he set up under Fayyad.

Fatah says no such approval is needed so long as parliament is paralysed. (Additional reporting by Ali Sawafta in Ramallah) REUTERS SM KN1958