One man has been killed and several others injured after supporters of the ruling Hamas clashed in the Gaza Strip with members of the presidential guard loyal to Mahmud Abbas, the Fatah-backed president.

A security official said Hamas members tried to storm a southern Gaza training camp for the presidential guard, triggering off a gun battle.

The latest clashes came after at least 18 Palestinians were wounded in fighting on Saturday that followed protests after Abbas called for early elections, medics and witnesses said.

A Palestinian boy was killed when he was caught in a gunfight in Gaza City, medical sources said.

A statement from Abbas' presidential guard said one member stationed at the base's gate was killed in Sunday's attack. Three guards were also wounded.

Official Palestinian TV indentified the attackers as Hamas fighters.

The assault started a fierce, 20-minute battle, and the sound of gunfire and grenade blasts mingled with the call for morning prayer.

The attackers fled after reinforcements were sent to the base from other presidential guard camps, security officials said.

Because it is a training facility, only about a dozen people were inside the base when fighters pulled up in jeeps and launched their attack, security officials said.

Hamas rejection

In a related development, Khalid Abu Hilal, a spokesman for the interior ministry, said Sayeed Siyam, the Palestinian interior minister, ordered Rashid Abu Shbak, head of internal security, to arrest Jon Muslih, a leader of al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, the military wing of Fatah, for allegedly threatening the prime minister, foreign minister and interior minister.

Hamas has rejected Abbas's call for elections, warning that it amounted to a call for "civil war" and vowed to fight the measure by bringing its supporters into the streets.

"Oh, Abu Mazen, oh spy!" chanted Hamas supporters, some of them masked and carrying the green flags of the movement and portraits of Ismail Haniya, the prime minister, in Gaza City.

"No, a hundred times not to early elections!" "Abu Mazen's call is a provocation and a coup d'etat against legitimacy and democracy," a Hamas spokesman, Ismail Radwan, told the crowd, referring to Abbas by his widely used monicker.

Election call

Abbas said he decided to call for early presidential and parliamentary elections to resolve an unprecedented political crisis with ruling Hamas.

"I decided to call for early presidential and legislative elections," Abbas said to applause during an eagerly awaited speech in Ramallah on Saturday.

"Basic law stipulates that the people are the source of power. "Let the people have their say and decide. "I will talk as quickly as possible with the central elections commission to launch the preparations for the ballot."

Abbas dismissed warnings that the early polls would lead to civil war between the Palestinians.

He said: "Despite the suffering, the pain, the confrontations whoever is responsible for them, we will not allow ourselves to sink into a civil war.

"Palestinian blood will rest a border that will not be crossed."

Reviving the PLO Abbas expressed determination to keep the Palestinian Liberation Organisation as the only legitimate representative of the Palestinian people.

"Those who talk about the illegitimacy of the PLO's executive committee are operating under its umbrella abroad."

The governing Hamas movement immediately rejected Abbas's announcement.

Wasfi Kabha, the minister of prisoners affairs, said: "Our priority is to form a national unity government. It is the only solution. We reject anything which complicates the Palestinian situation."

Hamas, which surprised Fatah to win parliamentary elections in January, had earlier said it would regard any call for fresh elections as a coup. Abbas said he called for early elections to resolve the current political crisis.

Poll timing

A senior aide to Abbas said on Saturday that early elections could be held until the middle of next year for legal and technical reasons.

Saeb Erekat, a former negotiations minister, said Abbas first had to issue a presidential decree covering the early parliamentary and presidential polls. After that, voter rolls would need 90 days to be updated.

He said: "Technically, the elections cannot be held before mid-2007."

Abbas has also decided to appoint a new leadership committee for his Fatah Party, in apparent preparations for the elections, his office said.

Hamas has called for a demonstration after sunset prayers in Gaza City to condemn the call for early elections.

Damascus factions

Several Palestinian faction leaders based in Syria have also rejected Abbas's decision.

"Any step outside the context of the laws is rejected by us all and this is not just the position of Hamas," said Khaled Meshaal, Damascus-based Hamas leader.

"The position that we have expressed today is the position of the 10 Palestinian factions whose history, performance and weight on the ground is well-known."

Ramadan Shallah, Islamic Jihad leader, who met with Meshaal in Damascus, urged Hamas and Fatah to reach an agreement, calling Abbas' decision "lawless".

"We believe that such a call will regrettably take us to the unknown," Shallah said in an interview to Al Jazeera.

PHOTO CAPTION

A Palestinian youth, walks next to burning tires after a Palestinian was killed by the Palestinian security forces in the West Bank town of Jenin, Wednesday, Dec. 13, 2006. (AP)