Hamas boycotts parliament session

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Members of Hamas have boycotted an emergency session of the Palestinian parliament called by Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas.

The session, the first since the militant group seized control by force of the Gaza Strip last month, had to be abandoned after too few MPs attended.

Only 44 members of the 132-member parliament attended the session in the West Bank - 67 are needed for a quorum.

Gaza and the West Bank are, in effect, being run by rival administrations.

Leader of the Hamas bloc Salah Bardawil called the session in Ramallah "illegal".

The BBC correspondent in the West Bank, Aleem Maqbool, says Hamas feared laws could have been passed strengthening the powers of the president at the expense of parliament.

Fatah officials said recently that if parliament did not meet, the president could issue a decree extending the mandate of the emergency government sworn in on 17 June.

Separate administrations

Mr Abbas, who leads the Fatah faction, responded to the Hamas takeover of Gaza by dissolving the government and sacking Prime Minister Ismail Haniya, of Hamas.

He appointed Salam Fayyad to head the new emergency cabinet.

Mr Abbas' Fatah-dominated administration has received the backing of the US, Israel and EU, and to a lesser degree, the Arab states.

Hamas still, technically, maintains a majority in the Palestinian parliament. But of its 74 representatives there, more than 40 are now in Israeli prisons. Hamas also prevented Fatah parliamentarians in Gaza from joining in a video conference that had been set up.

Hamas says it will continue to boycott meetings until there is better understanding between the two main parties.

Mr Abbas called off all discussions with Hamas, after its take-over of the Gaza Strip.