RAMALLAH, West Bank (AP) – Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas stepped back from a political showdown with his Hamas rivals, giving the Islamic militants several days to recognize Israel or face the voters in a referendum on the idea.

Abbas, a moderate, has been pushing the Hamas-led government to accept a proposal that calls for a Palestinian state alongside Israel, implicitly recognizing the Jewish state. Abbas believes the plan will help lift the economic pressure on the Palestinians and allow him to pursue peace talks with Israel.

Hamas, which is sworn to Israel’s destruction, has balked at the plan, demanding changes in the language, calling for more time to discuss it and saying it won’t give in to deadlines.

“We are giving enough time, about three days, for our brothers in Hamas to reconsider their position,” said Yasser Abed Rabbo, a top official of the Palestine Liberation Organization, which Abbas also heads.

Hamas officials welcomed Abbas’ offer to extend their dialogue but repeated their opposition to deadlines on the referendum.

Abbas initially gave Hamas until Tuesday to accept the plan. Officials said Abbas agreed to the delay at the request of unspecified Arab leaders.

Although a referendum would be nonbinding, a vote could deeply embarrass Hamas, putting public pressure on the group to moderate its violent ideology.

A new survey released Tuesday showed 77 percent of Palestinians would vote in favor of the proposal. The survey of 1,200 Palestinians was conducted by Bir Zeit University in the West Bank and had a margin of error of 3 percentage points.

Abbas’ Fatah movement says the president will not accept amendments.

The delay gave Hamas some breathing room as it struggled with a devastating international economic boycott and increasingly bloody tensions with Fatah.

In the latest violence, a battle erupted early Wednesday between Hamas and Fatah forces in Gaza City. Hospital officials said one person was seriously wounded by gunfire.

On Tuesday, rocket-propelled grenades were fired at the pro-Fatah Preventive Security compound in the Gaza Strip, wounding three maintenance workers, officials said. Fatah officials accused Hamas of being behind the attack. Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh of Hamas called the incident “regrettable” and urged restraint by all sides.

Meanwhile, Israeli aircraft fired missiles at a street in northern Gaza and at a building in Gaza City early Wednesday, witnesses said. No one was hurt.

Witnesses said the street targeted was a launching area for rockets aimed at Israel. Less than an hour earlier, Israeli aircraft fired missiles at a facility of the militant Popular Resistance Committees in Gaza City. The PRC claimed responsibility for firing nine rockets at an Israeli town on Tuesday.

Later Israeli aircraft fired three more missiles at empty fields, residents said. Israel often targets launching areas in northern Gaza with artillery and air strikes.

Palestinian officials said the referendum would be held about 45 days after an announcement by Abbas.

“We still have a chance to make this dialogue a success,” Haniyeh said in Gaza. “Therefore we ask for more meetings and more dialogue and that we don’t use the language of days and time as a threat.”

The Palestinian plan was formulated by senior Hamas and Fatah prisoners held by Israel. Prisoners hold great weight in Palestinian society.

Israel opposes key elements of the 18-point document, but is staying on the sidelines during the internal Palestinian debate. At the same time, Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert is making a series of trips abroad to discuss policy.

After visiting the U.S. and Egypt, Olmert is to visit Jordan on Thursday for talks with King Abdullah II, both countries said. A Jordanian official said the king would try to persuade Olmert to drop his plan to set Israel’s border unilaterally if talks with the Palestinians fail.

Exiled Hamas leader Mousa Abu-Marzouk told the AP by phone that his group had “accepted” an invitation by President Ali Abdullah Saleh of Yemen to top Hamas and Fatah representatives to continue talks on the prisoners’ plan in Yemen.

Abbas politely declined the offer, according officials close to the president.

Abbas has been involved in an increasingly bloody power struggle with Hamas since the Islamists defeated Fatah in legislative elections early this year. Sixteen people have been killed in clashes between the sides in recent weeks. Abbas was elected separately last year.

The financial crisis has left the government unable to pay the salaries of tens of thousands of civil servants. Israeli military officials said Hamas nonetheless has managed to smuggle hundreds of thousands of dollars into the Gaza Strip in recent weeks.

The money has enabled Hamas to sustain key operations, including charitable activities and operations of its new 3,000-member security force, the officials said.

Asked about the smuggling, government spokesman Ghazi Hamad did not deny it.

“We will look for money everywhere and every place. That is our right,” he told Israel’s Army Radio, in Hebrew.

AP-ES-06-06-06 1918EDT

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