Abbas calls for Palestinian conference on economy, politics

Invitations for the May 2-4 conference were sent to the Hamas government, armed groups and members of the executive committee of the Palestine Liberation Organisation among others.

The conference is "aimed at discussing the current situation (in the Palestinian territories), reinforcing unity and confronting the financial crisis," the invitation read.

In the face of a severe curtailment of aid, the Palestinian Authority has failed to pay its 160,000 civil servants for the last two months.

The conference looks to spark a broad, inclusive debate among Palestinians, with businessmen, university deans, mayors and newspaper editors invited to attend.

Hamas's parliamentary speaker Aziz Dweik had appealed to Abbas in mid-April to hold such a conference to bridge the gap between Hamas and other factions including Abbas' Fatah movement.

The Palestinian government is in dire financial straits after the United States and European Union slashed funds to the PA after the Islamic radical group Hamas swept legislative elections in January.

The economic woes have been coupled with power struggles between Hamas and Abbas, particularly for control of the government's security apparatus.

Abbas, who as Palestinian Authority president has overall responsibility for security, has vetoed the creation of a volunteer force of hundreds of gunmen from militant factions as announced by Hamas interior minister Said Siam.

However, Hamas has remained defiant and vowed to field the force as an auxiliary to the police.

The confrontation sparked street fights last weekend between gunmen from Abbas's Fatah party that left 30 people wounded in Gaza City.

Hamas's exiled supreme political leader, Khaled Meshaal, fanned the flames of the showdown by effectively accusing Abbas of waging a "plot" and leading a "counter-government" undercutting his group's prerogatives.

Clashes between Hamas and Fatah are nothing new in the Palestinian territories.

But tensions have intensified in the wake of the West's decision to cut off aid, which had proven a lifeline to the Palestinian Authority even in the darkest days of its intifada in the first half of the decade.

The international community has insisted Hamas must recognise Israel, renounce violence and commit to previous peace agreements as a condition for it to once more assist the Palestinian Authority.

But Hamas has so far remained defiant in the face of the West's pressure. The movement, whose members run the gamut from moderate to bellicose, have given mixed signals of how far they are willing to go to meet the international community's demands.

On Friday, French President Jacques Chirac floated the idea of a special account at the World Bank that be created to send payments directly to 160,000 Palestinian civil servants, thus bypassing the Hamas-led government.

But Hamas greeted the idea ambivalently, warning they would not be frozen out of paying state employees.

According to a poll conducted in the West Bank and Gaza Strip earlier this month, the movement's popularity has gone up despite the spate of penalties slapped on it by the West.

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