"We must not ignore what the president of Iran says -- he means everything he says," Olmert told the Knesset, referring to repeated calls by Mahmoud Ahmadinejad for Israel's elimination.

"The State of Israel, which the evil leaders in Tehran have turned into a target for annihilation, is not helpless and it has the ability to defend itself against any threat," he said.

Iran, the world's fourth-biggest oil exporter, says it seeks nuclear energy, not bombs. Iranian officials have argued that Ahmadinejad's comments on Israel did not constitute a threat.

The United States, Britain and France this week drafted a U.N. Security Council resolution demanding Iran curb its nuclear ambitions and threatening sanctions if it does not. Fellow council members Russia and China have balked at sanctions.

Believed to have the Middle East's only atomic arsenal, Israel backs the diplomacy but, like its U.S. ally, has refused to rule out military action as a last resort.

In 1981, Israeli warplanes bombed a reactor at Osiraq in Iraq, driving Saddam Hussein's quest for nuclear weapons underground until it was uncovered by U.N. inspectors.

Israel says Iran could be months away from building a nuclear bomb, though Western intelligence agencies put it at several years.

"Only a determined and uncompromising international stance in the face of Iran will be capable of stopping this threat and safeguarding the entire world," Olmert said.

His remarks were quickly endorsed in the Knesset by opposition leader Benjamin Netanyahu, who has called for an Osiraq-style preemptive strike on Iran.

Tehran has said its armed forces would retaliate for any attack. An Iranian Revolutionary Guards commander said this week that Israel would be the first target, a comment later played down by the deputy chief of military staff. Foreign analysts believe Iran could also hit U.S. interests in the Gulf.

Meshaal, who is in exile in Syria, told a packed auditorium at Damascus University that there was "no chance for a compromise" unless Israel fulfilled such conditions and because it was unlikely to do so in the near future, the Palestinians had no option but to resist occupation.

Hamas, an Islamist militant group sworn to destroying Israel, carried out nearly 60 suicide bombings against it since a Palestinian uprising erupted in 2000. Hamas won Palestinian elections in January and formed its first government in March.

"What do we have to talk about with them?" Israeli President Moshe Katsav told Israel's NRG Maariv Web site. "They do not recognize our right to exist and are unwilling to talk to us."

UNDER PRESSURE

Palestinian Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh told reporters in Gaza that "ending the occupation and returning Palestinian rights" was a condition for any ceasefire or peace agreement.

Hamas, which has largely abided by a ceasefire for more than a year, has been under increasing Western and Israeli financial pressure to recognize the Jewish state, abandon armed struggle and accept interim Israeli-Palestinian peace deals.

"If (the Palestinian leadership) accepts the terms ... then we will conduct a political negotiation with it," said Katsav, whose position is largely ceremonial and does not dictate diplomatic policy.

Meshaal slammed international pressure on the Palestinian Authority that has left some 165,000 civil servants without pay as "an international crime" and said Palestinians have the right to resist Israeli occupation.

GAZA, May 3 (Xinhua) -- Two Palestinian police jeeps with a dozen of policemen holding guns and wearing helmets on board, drove fast one behind the other in Gaza City main street Omer al-Mukhtar, with police sirens sounding.

The two jeeps were heading to Daraj, one of poor overcrowded neighborhoods in the city, after police was told that two clans were fighting one another.

Another two civilian cars full of masked militants followed the two jeeps.

Exchange of fire between two families is usual in the Gaza Strip as security chaos has mounted since the beginning of the Palestinian intifada, or uprising, in late September 2000. Soon after the policemen arrived, the militants from the civilian cars also deployed in the area.

The policemen and 10 masked militants managed to control the situation and end the fighting 10 minutes later. There was no injury. Five men from the two families, who carried guns, were nabbed.

Local residents welcomed the police action that was supported by militants who came from different armed wings, mainly Hamas and the Popular Resistance Committees.

"This is exactly what we need. We need a strong police force that gains support from militants as well as from the community," said Husam al-Ashi, 45-year-old resident of Daraj neighborhood. Khaled Abu Hilal, new spokesman for the Interior Ministry of the Hamas-led government, said that the force to support police in restoring order and discipline had started its mission early this week.

Two weeks ago, the Interior Ministry announced a decision to form a new force that will help security apparatuses restore order and discipline and end security chaos.

"This force would include about 3,000 militants, who are members of six different armed wings that belong to several
political factions and its mission would be for six months only," said Abu Hilal.

He went on to say that the idea of forming this security force came after crimes, attacks on government properties and abduction of foreign visitors dramatically increased in the Gaza Strip. "Before we decided to form this security force, we met with celebrities from different big clans and tribes, and we also met with leaders of political factions and commanders of militants. All of them blessed the idea," said Abu Hilal.

But such a decision was strongly condemned and rejected by Fatah officials of the Palestinian National Authority (PNA), mainly by President Mahmoud Abbas who hurried up in issuing a decree saying that this force can never be formed.

"We sent a letter to Abbas and told him that this force will never be an alternative to all police and security apparatuses, nor will it be another apparatus. We told him that this force is just to aid police," said Abu Hilal.

The decision was also rejected by some other militant groups, mainly those belonging to the Fatah movement, Hamas' rival which had ruled the Palestinians for the past 10 years and was defeated by Hamas in the January 25 legislative election.

Abu Hilal and Prime Minister Ismail Haneya insisted that nothing stop them from keeping this force to end the current security chaos that has led to disasters in the Palestinian community over the last few years. Abu Mujahid, spokesman of the Popular Resistance Committees in the Gaza Strip, told Xinhua that his group had informed Abu Hilal that it would join the force.

"We believe that if this government really wants to end corruption and end chaos that has been here for several years, we are ready to help it," said Abu Mujahid.