Fatah ministers will suspend participation in unity government with Hamas until fighting stops, the Fatah Central Committee decided in an emergency meeting Tuesday, after two days of violence that left at least 36 people dead and dozens wounded.

The decision does not constitute a final withdrawal from the coalition but means the Fatah ministers will suspend their government activities until a cease-fire is reached, said Fatah spokesman Nabil Abu Rudeineh.

He said that the movement had decided on a full withdrawal if the fighting doesn't stop.

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Palestinian Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh called Tuesday for an end to the fighting in the Gaza Strip and an immediate resumption of negotiations between his Hamas movement and the rival Fatah faction.

"He urges restraint and an end to this chapter of conflict, an immediate return to the negotiating table and an end to sedition," an official in Haniyeh's office said, reading from a statement.

He also accused Fatah of not believing in political partnership and of
seeking to disrupt Palestinian society.

Earlier, Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas called for an immediate end to the fighting between Fatah, which he heads, and Hamas, saying it went against Palestinian "interests."

"In order to protect the higher national interests of our people, and to try stop the bloodshed, I, in my position as the head of the Palestinian Authority and the head of all security forces call for an immediate halt to fire," Abbas said in a statement.

The statement accused "a small group of leaders," including those unhappy with a national unity deal between Abbas and the ruling Hamas organization, of "taking the country into an ugly civil war."

The unity government was formed in March during a summit in Mecca, in an effort to stem a previous round of internecine violence in Gaza. A Palestinian group said last week that more than 600 people have been killed in internal clashes since Hamas ousted Fatah from power in Juanuary 2006 parliamentary elections.

Abbas also called for a joint meeting with Egyptian mediators to end the fighting, which has killed 80 people over the past month.

Sufyan Abu Zaida, a former Palestinian cabinet minister and a senior Fatah official, called on Abbas to involve the Arab League in a bid to stop factional violence.

"What is happening now in the Gaza Strip is different from previous cycles of violence -in terms of the number of dead, the amount of armed forces fighting each other, and in terms of rhetoric," he said. "We have stopped counting the dead and the fighting forces in the Strip - from the north to the south."

Abu Zaida made the comments at a conference for Israeli and Palestinian peace organizations in Tuscany, Italy.

But the frustrated head of the Egyptian security delegation, Major General Burhan Hamad, who has been trying to negotiate a truce, told Palestinian TV on Tuesday morning that he would call the people out onto the streets to protest if the two groups do not agree to stand down.

A cease-fire agreement brokered Monday by Egyptian officials collapsed after several hours.

Hamad said Tuesday that neither side responded to his call to hold truce talks Tuesday.

"It seems they don't want to come. We must make them ashamed of themselves. They have killed all hope. They have killed the future," said Hamad, who brokered several previous short-lived cease-fires.

Hamad said both sides were about equal in firepower. "Neither can have a decisive victory," he said. "To be decisive, they need weapons that neither side has."

He said he would call civilians out into the streets to protest if the two rivals did not agree to stand down.

Islam Shahwan, a spokesman for the Hamas militia, brushed aside the latest truce efforts.

"It's all talk. It's not serious," he said.

Abu Rudeineh said Tuesday that there no end was in sight to the fighting.

"You can see for yourself there's no taste for a cease-fire right now," he told The Associated Press by telephone, blaming Hamas.

EU warns of risk of civil war

The European Union called Tuesday for an immediate end to the fighting, warning of a risk of civil war.

Speaking after talks in Brussels with Palestinian Information Minister Mustafa Barghouti, EU External Relations Commissioner Benita Ferrero-Waldner said the bloc was "extremely concerned" about the recent flare-up in violence.

"There is an immediate need for a ceasefire both in Gaza and the West Bank and this National Unity Government has to be consolidated... otherwise we see the risk of a civil war... if the spiral of violence continues, this risk could be very imminent," she said.

Ferrero-Waldner told a news briefing she had discussed with Barghouti how the EU could respond more quickly to the needs of the unity government but said a bar on direct budgetary assistance remained in place.

During the talks, Jordanian Foreign Minister Abdelelah Al-Khatib and the European Union's Middle East envoy Marc Otte also urged Hamas and Fatah to stop fighting and use dialogue to resolve their differences.

"The two sides expressed concern over the internal Palestinian feuds and emphasized that dialogue and exercising self-restraint represented the only way for ending the violence there," a statement said.

Al-Khatib and Otte "urged all parties to seize the opportunity now available for boosting peace and called for a real effort both on the Arab and international level to help stop the deteriorating situation and revive the peace process," according to the statement.

Barghouti blamed the Gaza violence on the international boycott on the Palestinian government, imposed in the wake of the Hamas election victory.

"If we did not have this embargo, the whole situation would have been much better," he said.