RAMALLAH, West Bank (Reuters) – President Mahmoud Abbas called on Saturday for Palestinian elections, throwing down the gauntlet to his Hamas rivals after days of factional violence that has sparked fears of civil war.

Abbas said parliamentary and presidential polls should be held at the earliest opportunity, but appeared to leave the door open to the ruling Hamas by saying renewed efforts should be made to form a government that could lift Western sanctions.

British Prime Minister Tony Blair urged foreign governments to support Abbas while the United States said it hoped elections would enable peace talks with Israel to resume. Israel did not comment on the election call, but lauded Abbas as a moderate.

Gunmen from Hamas and Abbas’s Fatah faction clashed hours later in Gaza and at least six people were wounded, witnesses said. The said the rivals exchanged fire with automatic weapons and rocket-propelled grenades.

Internal Palestinian tensions are at their worst in a decade after the collapse of months of talks between the Hamas Islamist movement and Fatah on forging a unity cabinet.

“I have decided to call for presidential and parliamentary elections… The crisis is getting worse,” Abbas said in a speech broadcast live on Palestine TV.

Hamas accused Abbas of launching a coup against its administration and said the president had no authority to call early elections. The movement said it would look at its options to preserve the government but gave no details.

“Any elections imposed against the will of the Palestinian people will be a recipe for internal fighting,” Foreign Minister Mahmoud al-Zahar, a senior Hamas leader, said.

A senior Abbas aide, Saeb Erekat, said elections could not be held before the middle of next year for legal and technical reasons. He said Abbas first had to issue a presidential decree to provide a framework for the early polls. After that, voter rolls would need some 90 days to be updated.

BLAIR VISIT

Blair, on a peace drive in the Middle East, will meet Abbas in the coming days.

“This is the moment for the international community to come behind him, to help build his authority,” Blair said in Cairo.

The United States, which has sought to bolster Abbas, said it hoped elections would help calm Palestinian violence.

At times combative, Abbas made clear he had the power to sack the 9-month-old Hamas government, which has struggled to function under the weight of the U.S.-led embargo on its administration.

“I can do it whenever I want,” Abbas said from the West Bank city of Ramallah.

Fatah activists in Gaza and the West Bank broke into celebrations when Abbas issued the election call, firing weapons into the air. Thousands of Hamas supporters took to Gaza’s streets to protest.

Hamas surprised Fatah by winning parliamentary elections in January. Abbas was elected separately in early 2005 in a presidential poll that Hamas did not contest.

The Palestinian basic law, which acts as a constitution, has no provision for calling early elections.

Fatah officials say Abbas can do so by issuing a presidential decree. Hamas said it would be illegal.

Current opinion polls do not indicate which faction would win elections. Abbas has also effectively put his own job on the line. He has previously said he would not seek another term.

Abbas, also known as Abu Mazen, wants a negotiated peace settlement with Israel. Hamas’s charter calls for the Jewish state’s destruction, a stance that has scuppered previous unity government talks.

“Israel has clearly stated its support for moderates in the Palestinian Authority… Abu Mazen has shown himself as such a moderate,” Israeli government spokeswoman Miri Eisin said.

Sanctions were imposed on Hamas after it took office in March because it refused to recognize Israel and renounce violence.

U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice told Reuters on Friday she would ask Congress for tens of millions of dollars to strengthen Abbas’s security forces.

(Additional reporting by Nidal al-Mughrabi in Gaza, Ori Lewis and Corinne Heller in Jerusalem, Katherine Baldwin in London and Caren Bohan in Washington)