Haneya made the statements in Gaza at the beginning of a two-day national dialogue meeting which kicked off in both Gaza and the West Bank city of Ramallah on Thursday.

"Today's meeting is aimed to boost our national unity and all of us are endangered as we live on harsh conditions with Western conspiracy," said Haneya via live video-link with Ramallah where President Mahmoud Abbas was attending the meeting. Israel prohibits Haneya and other Gaza-based Hamas leaders from travelling to the West Bank.

"There will never be a civil war on the Palestinian territories," he stressed against a backdrop of increasing tensions and repeated violent clashes between his own Hamas and Abbas' Fatah movement over security control in the Gaza Strip.

Haneya urged the newly-established National Security Council to fulfill its duty to restore order on the Palestinian territories.

The special council, consisting of Abbas, Haneya, Interior Minister Saeed Siam, Foreign Minister Mahmoud al-Zahar and Finance Minister Omar Abdel Razeq as well as main security chiefs, has been tasked with defusing tensions between Hamas and Fatah supporters and taking charge of security issues in Gaza.

Haneya also said that Interior Minister Siam, who is also a senior Hamas member, should be given security and administrative power by law to curb the deterioration of the security situation.

Haneya made the statements as fierce confrontations between anew Hamas-led security force and police loyal to Abbas claimed the lives of at least six people including a Jordanian citizen during the past week.

The dispute was triggered as Siam announced on May 17 the formation of a 3,000-strong new security force under Hamas'control, which was subsequently deployed in the Gaza streets,despite Abbas' opposition.

The regular Palestinian security forces and police are largely made up of Fatah loyalists.

The goal of forming the new security force, which mainly consists of Hamas gunmen, was not to "show power but to help the regular police force maintain security," Haneya said.

Haneya also urged the umbrella Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), seen as the sole representatives of the Palestinians, to reform.

The PLO, which espouses a negotiated settlement to the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, groups together key Palestinian factions including Fatah, but not Hamas.

Shortly after Haneya's speech, President Abbas said that he would call a referendum if Palestinian factions failed to agree during the national dialogue on an initiative that supports resistance against the Israeli occupation as well as a negotiated settlement.

The initiative also demands Israel to withdraw to bordersbefore the 1967 Mideast war and calls for an independent Palestinian with Jerusalem as capital and a just solution to the issue of Palestinian refugees.

Hamas, or the Islamic Resistance Movement, defeated Abbas' once dominant Fatah movement in the January Palestinian legislative polls and took office in late March.

The Islamic group, calling for Israel's destruct, has refused to renounce violence, recognize Israel's right to exist and abide by previous Palestinian-Israeli deals.

Besides uneasy relations with Fatah, the Hamas-led government is also facing a deepening financial crisis due to the West's cutoff of aid and Washington-led political isolation.

The two-day national dialogue is designed to bridge differences among Palestinian factions, strengthen unity and deal with the pressing economic crisis.