Saudi King: Palestinian rift more harmful than Israeli aggression

Saudi Arabia's King Abdullah has urged Palestinians to unite, arguing that their disputes have done more harm than decades of what he termed Israeli aggression.

According to the Saudi Press Agency, the king has told Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas that if the entire world was united in its support for a future Palestinian state, such an entity would not be possible to create given Palestinian divisions.

Abdullah's remarks came in a cable to Abbas on Tuesday.

Tensions between the main Palestinian factions Fatah and Hamas have deepened, with each cracking down on the other's loyalists since Hamas seized the Gaza Strip in June 2007.

A Palestinian unity deal is seen as a prerequisite for any peace agreement with Israel.

Abbas, meanwhile said at the opening of his Fatah movement's sixth convention on Tuesday that Palestinians have a legitimate right to engage in "resistance" against Israel, but "we must not stain our legitimate struggle with terror."

"Although peace is our choice, we reserve the right to resistance, legitimate under international law," Abbas told the gathering in Bethlehem's Terra Sancta school.

However, he added, the Palestinians should stick to negotiations as long as any "shred of hope" for an agreement remains.