**Voting for key leadership roles has been delayed for a second day as rows dog the Palestinian Fatah movement’s first party congress for 20 years.**The faction of Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas is trying to re-elect its 21-seat central committee.
Younger members want to wrest more control from older leaders seen as corrupt and ineffective.
Saudi Arabia’s King Abdullah has warned the Palestinians they will never have a state unless they end internal splits.
In a strongly worded letter printed in al-Hayyat Newspaper, the Saudi monarch said the bitter feud between Fatah and its more Islamist rival Hamas had done more damage to the Palestinian cause “in a few months” than Israel had over years of conflict.
The faction is also struggling to end internal battles between rival camps in an attempt to improve its image among Palestinian voters ahead of possible elections in January 2010.
Gaza row
The congress was originally scheduled to last three days, but was extended on Thursday after a fractious day of meetings on Wednesday, which a spokesman described as “stormy”.
Delegates seeking to modernise Fatah have accused the “old guard” of packing the conference with sympathisers to squeeze out younger members.
Proceedings have also been hindered by a row over the treatment of the votes of about 400 Gaza-based delegates who had been prevented from travelling to the congress in the West Bank town of Bethlehem by Fatah’s rival faction Hamas.
Hamas controls the Gaza Strip, and refused to allow the delegates to leave unless Fatah released some 900 Hamas prisoners the Islamist movement says are being held in the West Bank.
The issue has been controversial as it could affect the chances of former Gaza security head Mohammad Dahlan, a younger but highly divisive figure, of being elected to the committee.
On Thursday, a heavily applauded conference motion blaming Israel for the death of the faction’s founder, Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat, provoked an angry response from Israeli politicians.
Arafat, who had been ailing for some time, died in Paris from a so far unidentified blood disorder in 2004.
“Those who desire war shall get war,” Israeli Transport Minister Yisrael Katz told Israeli newspaper Yediot Aharanot, saying Mr Abbas was allowing himself to be led towards “delusional and extremist opinions”.
Charter debate
International interest in the conference has so far centred on whether Fatah will alter its charter, which calls for armed struggle to end the existence of Israel.
This dates back to Fatah’s formation in the 1950s by Mr Arafat.
But by backing the Oslo peace process in the early 1990s, Fatah effectively renounced violence and recognised Israel.
On Tuesday Mr Abbas said Fatah was committed to peace, but maintained armed struggle as an option.
Correspondents say that without major reform Fatah will struggle to restore its image among Palestinians.
Nonetheless, opinion polls suggest that Fatah is currently more popular than its main rival, Hamas, which defeated it in parliamentary elections in 2006.