GAZA CITY, Oct 5: The ruling Hamas party accused US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice on Thursday of trying to ‘sabotage’ efforts to form a Palestinian unity government and of looking to ‘overthrow the elected government’.

The party also said Palestinian President Mahmud Abbas was dodging efforts to create a national government, billed as a means to end a deepening political crisis.

“We call on President Abbas to resume efforts to form a national unity government, to ignore American pressures and draw up political positions that serve the interests of the Palestinian people and his interest,” Hamas said in a statement.

“President Abu Mazen (Abbas) and certain circles in Fatah are responsible for the refusal to form a unity government on the basis of the national reconciliation document and are imposing new conditions corresponding to American and international conditions rejected by the nation,” it alleged.

The hardline party charged that Mr Abbas was exerting ‘immoral pressure’ to foster the collapse of the current Hamas-controlled government and replace it with a cabinet tailor-made to meet demands imposed from abroad.

Visiting Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, determined to bolster the moderate Abbas, closed ranks with the president on Wednesday in calling for any new government to respect the peace principles set out by the world powers.

Hamas has stubbornly refused immense pressure from the West and Mr Abbas for an eventual unity government to accept a political programme that amounts to recognition of Israel and past Israeli-Palestinian agreements.

The Islamists did accept such a platform on Sept 11, as based on the reconciliation document approved in June, but Hamas leaders subsequently contested any suggestion that the text amounted to recognition of Israel.

The president on Wednesday gave Hamas another two weeks to accept a moderate political platform, saying that there was no longer any dialogue and efforts needed to start again from the beginning.

Without an agreement ‘the Palestinian leadership will decide on the measures to take to get us out of this crisis’, Mr Abbas said.

Asked about possibly holding early elections, he said ‘all possibilities are conceivable, except civil war, which we must avoid at all costs’.

Under Palestinian basic law, the president can declare a state of emergency and appoint an emergency government. After 28 days, however, the cabinet would need approval from parliament, currently dominated by Hamas.

Mr Abbas’s aides have recently proposed elections as a way out of the malingering crisis, a possibility also evoked by Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak.

“Palestinian efforts could lead to early elections of the Palestinian Legislative Council to overcome the crisis between Fatah and Hamas,” Mr Mubarak pointed out in a magazine interview carried by the state news agency MENA.

“Egypt has made major efforts toward forming a national unity government but these efforts have come up against inter-Palestinian differences,” Mr Mubarak said.—AFP