Israel says it will not oppose a deal that would see the Palestinian Authority (PA) of Mahmoud Abbas take control of the Rafah border between Gaza and Egypt, according to officials.

However Hamas, which controls Gaza, says it will not recognize any agreement between Abbas and Hosni Mubarak, the Egyptian president, over the crossing.

Egypt increased security around the border town of Rafah on Tuesday, and resealed parts of the barrier destroyed a week ago by Hamas fighters, in an attempt to control the flow of people in and out of the Gaza Strip.

Essential supplies

Hundreds of thousands of Palestinians have flooded into Egypt during the last week to buy essential supplies previously denied them by an Israeli blockade of the territory.

Under heavy international pressure to ease its cordon, Israel has allowed European-funded fuel to reach Gaza's main power plant, but the main UN aid agency said its food shipments have been blocked for nearly a week.

Abbas won support from US, European and Arab ministers on Monday for taking control of Gaza's only border crossing with Egypt at Rafah, but he has faced resistance from Israel.

"If all of them want it, we will not be the ones that will undermine it. So it will happen," an Israeli official familiar with the deliberations said.

"Given that we see Abbas as the legitimate force and we don't want to weaken him, we have no reason to prevent it."

The official said that Israel had not agreed to give Abbas control over Gaza's border crossings with Israel, citing security concerns.

"Crossing into Israel, that is a different issue altogether," the official said.

Hamas position

Ghazi Hamad, a spokesman for Hamas, told Al Jazeera that the group recognized it needed to resolve its differences with the PA in order that Palestinians can have control of the crossing.

"We are committed to the priority of reopening the crossings and alleviating our people's suffering," he said.

"But Hamas cannot be excluded from any agreement reached."

Gaza's border crossings have emerged as an important issue in the power struggle between Hamas and Abbas, whose authority has been limited to the Israeli-occupied West Bank, home to 2.5 million Palestinians, since Hamas' takeover of Gaza in June.

Abbas has proposed taking over all of Gaza's crossings with Egypt and Israel, seeking strategic footholds in the Hamas-controlled enclave.

Cairo talks

Hamas sees the effort as part of a campaign to limit its power, won in elections in January 2006.

By breaching the Rafah border to let hundreds of thousands of Palestinians pour into Egypt to stock up on supplies, Hamas showed its command on the ground and Israeli officials are skeptical of Abbas' ability to take charge.

Egyptian leaders will hold talks in Cairo on Wednesday with Abbas as well as Hamas leaders.

Israel has shut its own border with Gaza as part of its campaign to isolate Hamas and counter cross-border rockets fired by fighters.

The United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) said it will run out of canned meat to distribute to impoverished Gazans as early as Wednesday due to the Israeli restrictions.

The EU said on Monday it would consider sending its border monitors back to the Rafah terminal, provided Israel, Egypt and Abbas all agreed.

Meanwhile, tensions along Gaza's frontier with Egypt flared again on Tuesday when Egyptian forces tried to prevent Palestinian vehicles from driving into Egypt.

Hamas fighters intervened, firing into the air to clear the way for the cars to pass. They threatened to blast open new holes in the border if Egyptian forces refused to back down.

Egyptian forces strung barbed wire along some of the gaps between two gates leading into the Palestinian territory, while riot police were deployed on roads from Rafah to the border crossings.

A security force of around 20,000 has been deployed in north of the Sinai peninsula since Saturday, an Egyptian source told the AFP news agency.

PHOTO CAPTION

Bulldozer at Gaza-Egypt border