The chairman of the Fatah faction in the Palestinian parliament yesterday called for new elections in the Palestinian Authority. "How can one authority have two heads blaming each other?" Azzam al-Ahmed told a press conference in Ramallah. "If so, we must turn again to the people," he said. "Any country whose government reaches a dead end calls for early parliamentary elections. Those who trust themselves do not fear the people," he added.

Ahmed's statements came in response to a speech by PA Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh at a rally of thousands of Hamas supporters on Friday in Gaza. Haniyeh told them that all attempts to bring down the government will fail, and that Hamas would continue to lead the next Palestinian government. He said he hoped a unity government would be established and called on PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas to come to Gaza and continue talks in that direction.

According to Palestinian law, the chairman of the PA has the authority to disperse the government but he does not have the authority to order the dissolution of parliament and new elections.

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However, opinions in the PA are increasingly leaning toward the idea that there will be no choice but to hold new elections because Fatah and Hamas are unable to reach a formula for a unity government. Abbas demands that the new government recognize Israel and previous agreements signed by the PA, to which Hamas says it will never agree.

Haniyeh reiterated that Hamas is prepared to establish a Palestinian state within the 1967 borders. He said the organization is willing to reach a hudna or long-term cease-fire with Israel, but not to recognize it. "The government and the Hamas movement will not recognize Israel and will not give up any Palestinian principle, including the land of our fathers and grandfathers," he said. According to Haniyeh, in exchange for the hudna, Israel must agree to the return of Palestinian refugees from Lebanon and Syria.

Haniyeh criticized Arab and other countries of trying to diplomatically isolate the government by failing to invite him to visit, except for Qatar. He accused them of joining American and Israeli calls not to cooperate with the Hamas government.

"Does Mr. Haniyeh think that when he meets an ambassador here he is dealing with diplomacy?" Ahmad said in response. "I believe he has forgotten that the PLO has 90 embassies around the world."

Behind the stage on which Haniyeh was speaking in Gaza was a large picture of the head of Hamas' political wing, Khaled Meshal. Haniyeh told the crowd there are no factions in Hamas, no factions in the territories or outside them, and no moderates and no extremists. He mentioned the names of many Palestinian leaders Israel had assassinated. On the list were Ahmad Yassin, Fathi Shkaki, Abu Jihad, and Yasser Arafat. He said his government would continue investigating Arafat's death.

Haniyeh, who told the crowd he had ordered Interior Minister Saeed Seyam to put a stop to violence in the Palestinian street, discussed the PA economy at length during the rally. He explained that his government had cut spending by 50 percent of what the previous, Fatah government had spent, thus saving tens of millions of dollars. He also said his government had hired only a few dozen workers as opposed to the large-scale hiring by the Fatah government.