Mahmoud Abbas, the Palestinian president, and Ismail Haniyah, the prime minister, have agreed to a new ceasefire designed to end fighting between their followers in Gaza.

Abbas said the new ceasefire would begin at 11pm (2100 GMT) on Tuesday night.

"There will be a return to complete calm," he told journalists shortly before the truce began.

Abbas said the agreement "will be applied in Gaza to put an end to the armed presence, to shooting and to chaotic military deployments."

He said the deal between his party, Fatah, and Hamas came "after contacts with friendly countries and friendly leaders, such as [Jordanian] King Abudullah II."

Rival Palestinian fighters had earlier clashed at three locations, breaching a previous ceasefire that had been agreed on Sunday.

Abbas also said that the Palestinian police and the Executive Force, led by Siad Siam, the Hamas interior minister, would enforce the ceasefire.

Hamas calls for calm

Siam endorsed Abbas' call for a ceasefire and told his followers to withdraw from Gaza's streets.

"Armed men will no  longer be allowed to circulate on the streets of the Gaza Strip," he told Palestinian television.

Members of the Executive Force would return to the positions they held on Saturday before the renewed outbreak of fighting  between Hamas and Fatah forces, he said.

Siam added that roadblocks thrown up in the past few days would  be removed and that anyone captured in the fighting would be released.

Ismail Haniya, the Palestinian prime minister and head of Hamas, had earlier told Palestinians to unite to fight Israel.

"This people will remain united in the face of occupation and aggression and will not be derailed by internal struggles," he said during a televised address in Gaza City, before Abbas' announcement.

The clashes between Hamas and Fatah supporters broke out after the Palestinian president and the head of Fatah, called at the weekend for early elections.

Conciliatory gestures

Haniya repeated his opposition to Abbas' plan and again accused him of planning a coup.

"We consider the issue of the early elections for the presidency and parliament unconstitutional," he said.

"If you consider the people the source of power, why are you working against the will of the people?"

But Haniya also made conciliatory gestures to Abbas urging his interior minister to convene a meeting of rival security chiefs to discuss ways to calm the situation and reiterating a call for a long-term truce with Israel.

Hamas officials have proposed the truce, which Haniya said could last 20 years, before and it has been rejected by Israel.

PHOTO CAPTION

Palestinian youths run in the street during gunbattles between gunmen loyal to Hamas and Fatah in a street in Gaza, Tuesday, Dec.19, 2006. (AP)