The Palestinian government is determined to isolate Hamas after its violent takeover of the Gaza Strip, and is supporting Lebanese efforts to root out extremists in Palestinian refugee camps, Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas said Friday.

Appearing alongside Iraqi President Jalal Talabani, Abbas said Hamas had committed crimes, murder and aggression against everything Palestinians stand for when it took over Gaza earlier this month.

Abbas told a meeting of the Socialist International, an organization that brings together left-wing political parties from around the world that his government is determined to isolate the coup d'etat, delegitimize all militias and enforce law and order over all Palestinian territories.

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Abbas expressed scorn for the al-Qaida-inspired militants who have battled Lebanese troops from their base in Nahr el-Bared Palestinian refugee camp in the country's north.

"The Lebanese army, with our full support, is trying to uproot the militias and gangsters who are exploiting the name of Palestine," Abbas said.

Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayad delivered a stern warning Thursday to hundreds of Islamic preachers, including Hamas supporters, saying his government will not tolerate incitement in mosques.

Fayad's warning also included his government's intentions to collect all weapons from Palestinian militants.

Fayad met with some 800 Muslim clergy in a further attempt to stem the influence of Hamas in the West Bank.

Hamas is influential in many mosques in the West Bank and Gaza, and has been using Friday sermons as a vehicle for spreading its message. Preachers have also been actively involved in politics.

Security forces have arrested dozens of Hamas activists in the West Bank, and Abbas is trying to stem Hamas' funding with a review of all private organizations.

The Palestinians said their crackdown on Hamas was complicated by an Israel Defense Forces raid in the West Bank city of Nablus earlier Thursday. "We view this aggression as a way to undermine our efforts to provide security and end the chaos," Fayad said.

Israel described it as a routine operation targeting militants involved in plots to carry out attacks, and said troops found weapons and explosives in Nablus. Five Israeli soldiers were wounded in the operation, one of them seriously. Tens of thousands of residents were confined to their homes by a curfew.

Prime Minister Ehud Olmert has promised to bolster Abbas' government in his struggle with Hamas. Olmert's spokeswoman, Miri Eisin, said the Israeli government is committed to working with Abbas, but would not risk the safety of its own citizens. "We will go forward with full strength to strengthen Abbas, and full strength to stop the terror," she said.

Earlier this week, Abbas issued a decree barring militants from carrying weapons, but it's doubtful he'll be able to disarm Fatah's violent offshoot, the Al Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades. Fatah gunmen said they need their weapons for future confrontations with Hamas and Israel, and will not surrender them. Previous attempts to collect illegal weapons ended in failure.

In his meeting with clergymen Thursday, Fayad was accompanied by Abbas' top security official, Interior Minister Abdel Razak Yehiyeh. "We will collect weapons and replace them with pens and books," the minister told the crowd. "The phenomenon of militants is very dangerous, and we want to stop it in all forms."

Fayad told the preachers to take politics out of their sermons. "We won't allow them (mosques) to be turned into places of incitement and intimidation," he said. "It's the responsibility of men of religion to ... present religion as a way of tolerance, not as a cover for bloodshed."

In Nablus, seven of eight Hamas members of parliament are preachers, said Suhair al-Dubai, a moderate clergyman from the city.

"The government has realized how important the mosques are in forming and leading public opinion," said al-Dubai, who attended the meeting with Fayad. "But Hamas is very well organized in mosques ... The government can restrict them, but not eliminate them because they are part of a structure and can always find a way to play a political role."

Mohammed Abu al-Hasan, a Hamas preacher from the West Bank town of Jenin, said clerics would continue to speak their minds, regardless of any government directive.

"We will not accept these restrictions and we are going to respond with our own message in this Friday's sermons," he said. "Fayad is a politician, he can handle political issues and we...can handle religious issues."