Talks on Gazan border crisis launched in Eygpt

Palestinian Mahmoud Abbas began crisis talks with Egypt yesterday about restoring order at the breached Gaza border, facing a challenge from his Hamas rivals for control of the frontier.

Earlier, Hamas had demanded a central role in controlling the Gaza Strip's border with Egypt in an open challenge to Abbas.

Hamas Islamists, who seized control of Gaza last June after routing Abbas's secular Fatah forces, blasted open the Egyptian border last week in defiance of an Israeli-led blockade, allowing hundreds of thousands of Gazans to pour into Egypt to stock up on goods in short-supply.

The make-shift border remained open for an eighth day yesterday, with Palestinians moving freely into the Egyptian side of the town.

A delegation from the Islamist Hamas movement including top leader Mahmoud Zahar, crossed into Egypt through Rafah where they were met by Egyptian officials before continuing on to Cairo to join other leaders in their organization for talks with Egyptian officials.

"Egypt is our gate to the Arab, Islamic and entire world," said Mahmoud Zahar to Arabic satellite news channel al-Jazeera. "Therefore we will not allow the crossing to be used as a tool to suffocate the Palestinian people again."

"Talking about a partial role contradicts reality," he said as he crossed through the Rafah border terminal.

"The reality is that there is a legitimate government. We will not give up our legitimacy to anybody," he said.

Abbas meet separately in Cairo with Egyptian leaders and has already won US, European and Arab backing for taking control of the Rafah crossing, excluding Hamas.

"We have international support," Abbas aide Yasser Abed Rabbo said. "Hamas should stay out of this."

It is unclear how Abbas would be able to exert control over Rafah given opposition from Hamas, whose forces have command on the ground.

Mubarak not expected to meet the Hamas representatives given their historic links to Egypt's own powerful Islamist opposition, the Muslim Brotherhood, and the West's rejection of Hamas as a peace partner. In the past he has criticized Hamas's takeover of the Gaza Strip as illegitimate.

Yesterday's visit is the first by a Hamas delegation to Egypt since June.

Hamas to make the case that it would be capable of managing the Rafah crossing itself.

The group allowed TV cameras and reporters into the terminal to watch Zahar and other Hamas leaders get their passports stamped by Hamas border guards.

Meanwhile, Egypt's official Al-Ahram newspaper said a deadline for Palestinians to return to Gaza had been set for "the start of next week," citing security sources.