Rival Palestinian leaders began crucial talks in the holy city of Mecca yesterday, vowing to reach a power-sharing agreement to avert civil war between them, a key step toward resuming the peace process with Israel.

Many Palestinians fear that factional fighting will erupt with even greater force if the Mecca talks fail. Gunbattles between Hamas and Fatah killed more than 30 people in the days before a truce began Sunday and in Gaza yesterday there were threats of new revenge attacks.

In a sign of unity, Hamas leader Khaled Mashaal and President Mahmoud Abbas, head of the Fatah faction, drove to Mecca in the same car for the first day of what Saudi and Palestinian officials have said will be intensified negotiations that will continue until a deal is hammered out.

"We came here to agree and we have no other option but to agree," Mashaal told the inaugural ceremony in a royal palace over looking the Kaaba, the shrine that all Muslims face in their daily prayers.

Abbas vowed that "we will not leave this holy place until we have agreed on everything good, with God's blessing... I tell our people to expect good news, and I hope this (meeting) will not be mere words in the air."

Mashaal turned to Abbas at the ceremony and said they both had to tell their supporters to respect the truce. "We want to give a message to the nation, and the world, to create a positive atmosphere for these talks," Mashaal said.

Tension continues in Gaza

But tensions continued in Gaza. Hamas militants warned of new violence unless Fatah officers they accuse of being behind an attack last week on an Islamic university are handed over by the end of the day.

Hamas also accused Fatah in the slaying of one of its members in a shooting on Tuesday night though the attack may have been an instance of clan warfare that has overlapped the political battles.

The open-ended talks in Mecca are a high-stakes attempt by Saudi Arabia to mediate an end to the intra-Palestinian battles. The kingdom normally operates behind the scenes in its diplomacy, but it was forced to put its credibility on the line by the violence in Gaza and its fears of a greater eruption of turmoil across the Mideast.

Saudi Arabia insists progress in the Israeli-Arab peace process is more urgent than ever to ease Mideast tensions, fueled in large part by the Iraq War.

The goal of the Mecca talks is to form a coalition government that includes the militant group Hamas which swept Palestinian elections in January 2006 yet still doesn't recognize previous peace agreements with Israel.

Hamas has long refused to recognize Israel and the past peace accords signed by the Palestine Liberation Organization, of which Fatah is the major member. Talks have also stalled over the issue of who would control security forces in any new Palestinian government.

Source: China Daily/Agencies