Two days after Hamas was declared the winner of Palestinian parliamentary elections, a senior leader of the militant group has rejected demands that it renounce violence, to prevent aid cuts for the Palestinian Authority.
Ismail Haniya, who headed Hamas' election list, said they would not give in to 'blackmail' by foreign donors.
He said there was no chance of the group abandoning its non-recognition of the Jewish state.
US President George W Bush had earlier said the US would reduce aid to the Palestinians if Hamas did not dissolve its armed wing and stop threatening Israel.
In a television interview, Mr Bush said that unless Hamas pursued a peaceful path, the US would not deal with its leaders and aid packages would be cancelled.
Mr Haniyeh said the aid packages could not become a 'sword over the heads of the Palestinian people'. He said the comments by Mr Bush were an attempt to blackmail Hamas and the Palestinian resistance.
EU officials have also indicated that a refusal by Hamas to renounce violence and recognise Israel could have consequences in its relations with a Hamas-run Palestinian Authority.
International assistance will be a key topic when US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice meets with her counterparts from the EU, Russia and the UN in London on Monday.
Protests follow Hamas election win
This afternoon, Fatah gunmen and Palestinian police briefly took over parliament buildings in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.
They were protesting against the failure by the Fatah leadership to defeat Hamas in Wednesday's parliamentary elections.
Around 40 gunmen climbed on to the roof of the parliament in Ramallah, which was not in session at the time.
Militants from the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, loosely affiliated to Fatah, and around 600 party activists converged on the parliament.
Around 3,000 supporters of Fatah also took to the streets in the troubled northern West Bank town of Nablus, calling for party leadership to resign and boycott any new Hamas-led government.
And in the Gaza Strip, police stormed into the parliament building's compound to protest against any transfer of security responsibility to Hamas.
Palestinian security forces are heavily infiltrated by Fatah elements, provoking fears of deteriorating relations between Fatah and Hamas militants.
Last night, thousands of angry Fatah supporters demonstrated outside the parliament building in Gaza City to call for the resignation of Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas.
In the southern Gaza Strip, violence involving Hamas and Fatah supporters left nine people wounded, including five members of the security forces.
