Gaza's economy could collapse within weeks unless Israel reopens crucial commercial trade crossings, UN officials and Gazan businessmen warned Wednesday.

More than 68,000 workers have lost their jobs since Gaza's borders were closed in mid-June, following fierce factional battles in which Hamas expelled the forces of the rival Fatah faction, said Nasser el-Helou, a prominent Gaza businessman.

The closings added to the already high unemployment rate in the narrow coastal strip, bringing it up to about 75 percent, according to the MAS Institute for Economic Studies.

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In recent weeks, some border points were opened to transfer humanitarian supplies. But no industrial material has entered Gaza, bringing construction activity and manufacturing to a halt, including $93 million worth of UN-funded projects employing 121,000 people, according to the United Nations.

The appeal came a day before the so-called Quartet of Mideast mediators - the U.S., the UN, the European Union and Russia - meet in Portugal with their newly appointed emissary, former British Prime Minister Tony Blair.

"We are asking them (the Quartet) to take consideration of what is happening here. They must take political decisions to open all the crossings, and then the operational solutions will be found," said John Ging, director of the United Nations Relief Works Agency in Gaza.

The UN provides food aid to 80 percent of Gaza's 1.4 million people.

"Please lift the siege of Gaza," el-Helou said. |Mr. Blair, the siege is destroying our economy, our community." El-Helou said Israeli business partners had begun canceling contracts because
Palestinian factories were unable to meet deadlines.

He said if the borders remained closed, Gaza's economy would collapse in one or two weeks maximum.

On Tuesday, however, Haaretz reported that Palestinian sources said PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas asked Israel and Egypt to prevent the movement of people from Egypt to the Gaza Strip through the Rafah border crossing, after Hamas' mid-June takeover of the coastal strip.

The sources said that Abbas said if the crossing is opened, Hamas will be able to let in thousands of people without supervision into Gaza - including activists who could strengthen the group, which rival Abbas' Fatah movement.

The sources added that Abbas and a number of his aides asked for that the request not be made public.

On Wednesday, however, Chief Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat denied the Haaretz report, saying that the PA has requested the opening of the border on numerous occasions.

The Rafah border crossing has remained closed since Hamas' ousting of Fatah from Gaza.

Israel is attempting to bolster Abbas and his Fatah movement in its struggle with Hamas over control of the PA. It published Tuesday a list of prisoners jailed in Israel, mostly from Fatah, to be released Friday as one such gesture of support.

As an alternative to the Rafah crossing, Abbas asked that the Kerem Shalom crossing on the Israel-Gaza border be used for the thousands of Gazans who have been barred entry through Rafah and held up on the border for a number of weeks. Some who were ill have since died while waiting.

Israel also suggested opening Kerem Shalom in order to deal with the stranded Palestinians, but Hamas has refused.

The factional fighting among the Palestinians has led to a policy dispute within Egypt as well, over the question of Rafah and contacts with Hamas in general.

Sources close to Egyptian Intelligence chief Omar Suleiman's argue Egypt should work with Hamas and open the crossing, but the Egyptian embassy in Tel Aviv opposes this measure. Those against strengthening ties with Hamas believe this will hurt Abbas.