AFP - Fatah on Saturday again postponed a key leadership election as the secular Palestinian party's first congress in 20 years entered its fifth day amid disputes on how to revive its authority.

The internal vote to renew Fatah's governing bodies is now scheduled to take place on Sunday morning.

The convention, which started on Tuesday and had been due to last three days, was extended after bitter arguments between the old guard and young delegates seeking a stronger role and broad reform.

Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas, who took over as party chief after the 2004 death of Yasser Arafat, is certain to retain his position, with Fatah officials describing him as "the consensus candidate."

More than 2,000 delegates at the party's congress in the West Bank city of Bethlehem resumed discussions on ways to clean up the corruption-plagued party and offer an alternative to their bitter rivals in the Islamist Hamas movement.

Saturday's session was scheduled to discuss how to restore Abbas's authority in Gaza after Hamas seized control of the enclave in June 2007, routing Fatah forces and limiting Abbas's power to the Israeli-occupied West Bank.

Fatah, which controls the Palestinian Authority, exercised undivided power among Palestinians before it lost heavily to Hamas in a 2006 parliamentary election.

In a new sign of the bitter rivalry between the factions, Fatah accused Hamas on Friday of briefly detaining a number of its senior leaders in Gaza.

Infighting and corruption allegations have further weakened Fatah, which was founded by Arafat in the late 1950s.

FRANCE 24 Focus By FRANCE 24 Report from special envoys Annette Young and Marc de Chalvron in Bethlehem, 04/08/09