Two people were killed in the gunfire while militants burst into a mourning tent in Gaza City set up for Yasser Arafat, where Abbas planned to reach to accept condolences, al-Jazeera reported.About 30 unidentified gunmen stormed the tent to protest against Abbas' presence and they opened fire to the air for several minutes, witnesses said.

Abbas' bodyguards returned fired. Abbas was later escorted to Palestinian headquarters, the witnesses said.

However, former Palestinian interior security minister Mohamed Dahlan denied later that there was an assassination attempt targeting the newly-named PLO executive committee chairman Abbas.Yasser Abed Rabbo, member of PLO executive committee, echoed Dahlan's view by saying that what happened in Gaza was not a planned assassination attempt, and the chaos were caused by the overcrowdedness in the tent.

Hundreds of mourners were inside the tent at that time,including militants, police, security forces and representatives of various Palestinian groups and factions, including the Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas) and the Islamic Jihad (Holy War).Abbas arrived in Gaza late Sunday from Ramallah in the West Bankfor dialogue with Palestinian factions.

Official Palestinian sources said that a joint meeting of PLO executive committee and the mainstream Fatah movement's centralcommittee earlier on Sunday nominated Abbas as its candidate to run for the presidential elections slated for Jan. 9, 2005.