A senior Fatah official on Saturday urged Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas to sack the Hamas-led government within two weeks and accused Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh of sedition.

The comments from Azzam al-Ahmed, head of Fatah's faction in the Palestinian Legislative Council, underlined the increasing bitterness of the power struggle between Hamas and Fatah, after their failure to agree on a coalition government.

The government said it deplored Ahmed's words, a day after a fiery speech by Haniyeh, and said the Fatah leader was creating a "bad atmosphere" after strife that has killed at least 15 people in the past week and stirred fears of civil war.

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Abbas suggested this week that he might sack the government after Hamas refused to meet his terms for forming a national unity coalition that would at least implicitly recognise Israel, which Hamas is committed to destroying.

"It is time the president acted on his constitutional powers and we hope as he promised us within two weeks," Ahmed told reporters in the West Bank city of Ramallah, referring to Abbas's powers to sack the government.

"After those two weeks, the only solution is that we either agree on a political program to end the crisis or go to the people and hold new elections."

Hamas took office in March after trouncing the long-dominant Fatah in the January elections for the PLC. Fatah says the PA chairman has the right to call early elections, while Hamas disputes this and says only parliament can decide to do so.

Ahmed's comments came in response to a speech by Haniyeh on Friday in which he urged Abbas to resume talks on forming a national unity coalition, while ruling out any chance that Hamas could recognize Israel.

Haniyeh also accused unnamed parties of trying to topple the government, which has struggled under a U.S.-led aid embargo designed to push Hamas to recognize Israel, renounce violence and accept prior agreements.

"Haniyeh's speech causes incitement and encourages sedition," said Ahmed. He did not say exactly which part of the speech he considered to be seditious.

Responding to Ahmed, government spokesman Ghazi Hamad said in a statement that his words "aimed at deliberately creating a bad atmosphere."

Mohammed-Faraj al-Ghoul, a Hamas lawmaker and head of the PLC's legal committee, accused Fatah of trying to undermine Hamas so that it would not look into corruption during Fatah's rule.

Ahmed said Hamas had been involved in corruption since it took office and threatened to bring cases into the open. Ahmed dismissed Haniyeh's comment from Friday that his government had survived the tests it had because it drew its strength from God.

"Haniyeh, why are you afraid of elections if you have been put there by God?" he said.

Haniyeh: Hamas won't be forced out and won't recognize Israel
Hamas will not be pushed out of power, accept compromise or recognize Israel, Haniyeh of Hamas told a mass rally in Gaza on Friday.

Haniyeh ruled out the latest compromise proposal on a national unity government, a government of technocrats. The idea had been floated by senior Hamas members, as a way of winning international support.

"There are new scenarios, such as an emergency government, a technocrat government, or early elections," Haniyeh told tens of thousands of supporters. "They all aim for one thing, getting Hamas out of the government."

"I urge the leadership of Fatah and Hamas to hold an urgent meeting, tonight, in my presence, to put an end to the internal strife. [But] we will not recognize Israel," Haniyeh said.

Abbas said earlier this week that the talks designed to erect a Palestinian unity government had collapsed and accused Hamas on reneging on an earlier coalition deal.

The international community demands that Hamas recognize Israel, renounce violence and accept existing peace agreements.

"We say we will be in every government, we will stay in the government," he said.

Haniyeh accused the international community of trying to impose its will on Hamas.

"They want a government with American and Israeli dimensions that implements external dictation, the so-called Quartet demands," he said, referring to the group of Middle East peacemakers - the U.S., the UN, the EU and Russia.

Tens of thousands rally in Gaza to support Hamas government
Tens of thousands of Hamas members crammed into a Gaza stadium on Friday in a show of support for the movement's government after Abbas threatened this week to dissolve the administration.

Many waved green Hamas flags and shouted praise for Haniyeh, who addressed the crowd in the Gaza Strip's main soccer ground.

Haniyeh briefly fainted during his speech, at first slurring his words and then halting mid-sentence and collapsing into the arms of his aides who surrounded him.

Haniyeh was placed in a chair as aides attended to him.

The Palestinian prime minister, 46, is fasting, like all observant Muslims during the holy month of Ramadan. His speech was delivered outdoors during a hot autumn day. Haniyeh was revived and resumed his speech several minutes after his collapse.

"Our bodies can get tired, but our soul will not, and we will not stop our steadfastness," he said of the incident.

In his address, Haniyeh said that "any government that faced what we have faced would have fallen in the first or second month. Why has it not fallen? Because it gets its strength from God."

He accused members of rival security forces of "a form of a mutiny gainst the government." He did not elaborate, but appeared to be referring to protests last week by forces loyal to Abbas's Fatah movement.

Clashes earlier this week between Hamas gunmen and forces loyal to Abbas's Fatah movement have fueled fears of civil war. At least 15 people have been killed in the worst internal bloodshed in Gaza and the West Bank in a decade.

On Thursday, gunmen killed a Fatah member in the Gaza Strip and a supporter of rival group Hamas was critically wounded in separate incidents amid an escalating power struggle between the two groups.

Witnesses and medics said armed men opened fire on the Fatah member in the southern Gazan town of Rafah. The man later died of his wounds.

In the northern Gaza town of Beit Lahia gunmen critically wounded a member of Hamas.

No one claimed responsibility in either incident.

In a fresh attack later on Thursday, gunmen shot a police officer loyal to Fatah in his legs in Gaza's Jabalya district, witnesses said.

Fatah officials blamed Hamas gunmen for shooting the officer. There was no immediate comment from Hamas.

Showing increasing impatience, Abbas on Wednesday said he might sack the government over its refusal to agree a political platform for a unity coalition that would recognise Israel.

Western nations imposed sanctions after Hamas took power in March over the group's refusal to recognize Israel, renounce violence and accept interim peace deals between Israel and the Palestinian Authority.

One Palestinian official who attended a meeting between the president and U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice on Wednesday said Abbas told her he had given Hamas less than two weeks to agree a platform that satisfied those three demands.

Hamas has denied reneging on an earlier unity government agreement with Abbas and accused Fatah of trying to topple the government.