AFP - Fatah on Saturday re-elected Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas as head of the secular movement on the fifth day of its first congress in 20 years, which has been marred by disputes on how to revive its authority.

But a vote to renew the governing bodies of the secular movement was delayed again and re-scheduled to take place on Sunday.

More than 2,000 delegates at the congress in the West Bank city of Bethlehem unanimously raised hands in favour of Abbas, who took over as party chief after the 2004 death of Yasser Arafat.

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.

Saturday's discussions centred on ways to clean up the corruption-plagued party and offer an alternative to their bitter rivals in the Islamist Hamas movement.

Debate focused on 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 continued 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