Rival Palestinian movements began a two-day “national dialogue”yesterday, in an urgent attempt to bridge differences that have pushed the Hamas-led government and its opponents into open conflict.

President Mahmoud Abbas is also expected to urge Hamas, the militant Islamic group that took over the Palestinian government in March, to moderate its views and sign up to a document that seeks a negotiated settlement on Palestinian statehood.

The meeting, attended by a wide range of religious and political parties including representatives of Hamas and members of Abbas’s Fatah movement, follows a week of clashes between the two main Palestinian movements.

At least 10 people have been killed in the fighting, which raised fears of a complete breakdown of law and order in Gaza, the Mediterranean coastal strip where Hamas is strongest.

“This round of dialogue is extremely important,” Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh, a senior Hamas leader, said ahead of the meeting, talking in his Gaza strip stronghold.

“We are keen on the unity of the Palestinian people. We want to make dialogue the only language prevailing in the Palestinian arena and avoid talking by the language of guns.”

Israeli restrictions prevent Haniyeh from travelling from Gaza to the West Bank, where the meeting is taking place. Instead he and others joined the talks via video link.

<B>“Agreement unlikely”</B>

Palestinian officials in Ramallah said the meeting would focus on trying to get all sides to adopt a more pragmatic position, and said it would also discuss the constraints imposed by Israel and the West since Hamas came to power.

While the dialogue marks an attempt to tackle the power struggle between Hamas and the more moderate Fatah, which dominated politics for decades, few expect any breakthroughs.

In recent weeks, Abbas has repeatedly offered himself as a partner to resume long-stalled peace talks with Israel, in contrast to Hamas, whose charter officially calls for Israel’s destruction and which describes peace talks as pointless.

Both Israel and Abbas have called on Hamas to renounce violence, recognise Israel’s right to exist and abide by outstanding peace agreements, demands rejected by Hamas.

Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert has said he will try to pursue talks with Abbas, but has also said he cannot deal with the Palestinian Authority with Hamas in power, a position reiterated in an address to he US Congress.

One initiative set for discussion in the two-day dialogue is a broad new proposal drawn up by various factions, including members of Fatah and Hamas who are imprisoned in Israel.

The initiative urges peaceful resistance and a negotiated settlement if Israel withdraws to the borders that marked Palestinian territory before the 1967 Middle East war. That would involve Israel removing all settlements from the West Bank. Senior Hamas leaders have not signed up to the proposal.

Last week, Hamas officials said the group was considering adopting a separate initiative that accepts negotiations with Israel but falls short of recognising the Jewish state.

Hamas officials say they fear the dialogue will be used by some factions to call on the government to step down for failing to run the Palestinian Authority effectively.

“If the aim of the dialogue is to show that the government has failed to carry out its duties and must accept a political formula that hints at compromises, then the dialogue will not succeed,” said Khalil Abu Laila, a Hamas leader in Gaza.

Azzam al-Ahmad, leader of Fatah’s parliamentary bloc, said agreement was unlikely.

“I don’t expect practical results especially since Fatah and Hamas are wide apart politically. If Hamas insists on its rigid stances, and pursues policies to monopolise power, the crisis will increase,” he said.