Saudi Arabia's king has separately met Palestinian leaders ahead of their talks in Mekkah on Wednesday to end factional fighting.

King Abdullah bin Abdul Aziz al Saud met Mahmoud Abbas, the Palestinian president and head of Fatah and Khaled Meshaal, a senior Hamas leader.

However as they convened in Jeddah ahead of the talks on Tuesday, a member of Ezzedine al-Qassam Brigades, the armed wing of Hamas, was shot dead in Gaza City.

Gaza shooting

The al-Qassam Brigades man was shot dead by unknown men who opened fire on his car, a security source said. Three other people were wounded in the incident.

An officer with the Executive Force, linked to the Hamas-controlled Palestinian interior ministry, confirmed the death without providing details of the victim.

Hamas officials accused gunmen from Fatah of opening fire at the vehicle from a checkpoint near a heavily-guarded security complex and the residence of Mohammed Dahlan, a senior Fatah member, who is in Saudi Arabia for the talks.

A local clan claimed responsibility for the attack and said the Hamas commander was responsible for the killing of two family members in December.

Abdel-Hakim Awad, a Fatah spokesman, denied Fatah was involved in the shooting.

Both sides have said they are hopeful that an agreement on a unity government will be reached at the Mekkah summit.

But as Ismael Haniya, the Palestinian prime minister, left for the talks, Hamas and Fatah security officials traded fire at the Gaza-Egypt crossing.

King Abdullah said he wanted the meeting to lead to a resolution of the inter-Palestinian fighting.

"I hope that the brothers will not leave the holy place without an agreement ... and that they will swear ... to stop this bloodshed," he was quoted by the official news agency SPA as saying.

Meshaal and Haniya are expected to perform ‘umrah, before beginning talks in the evening which are expected to continue into Wednesday.

The talks are seen as a last-ditch effort to reach a power-sharing agreement and end the factional fighting that has killed 64 Palestinians since January 25.

Negotiators have tried but failed for months to find common ground on the key issues of ties with Israel and the division of portfolios in a unity accord, in the hope of ending a boycott by the US and European Union.

Azzam al-Ahmad, a senior aide to Abbas, said the talks would aim to persuade Hamas to accept the programme of the PLO which would involve an implicit Hamas recognition of Israel.

PHOTO CAPTION

Saudi Arabia's King Abdullah, right, meets with Palestinian Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh, left, and Hamas leader Khaled Mashaal, center, in Jiddah, Tuesday Feb. 6, 2007. (AP)

Al-Jazeera (summarized)