EU Condemns Takeover

The United States, Russia, the EU and the United Nations had a ministerial level telephone conference on the crisis on Friday, while Arab foreign ministers gathered in Cairo for talks.

The major powers mediating for Middle East peace affirmed Friday their "full support" for embattled Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas, EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana's spokeswoman said.

Egypt recalled its diplomatic and security delegations to the Gaza Strip.

"The presidency of the European Union condemns in the strongest terms the violent seizure of power by Hamas militia in the Gaza Strip," Martin Jäger, German foreign ministry spokesman, said on behalf of the EU leadership.

"We condemn the killing of innocent civilians and legitimate security forces," the spokesman said.

Hamas in control

Hamas fighters were in full control of the Gaza Strip on Friday, creating an Islamic enclave on Israel's doorstep and further clouding prospects for peace after routing their secular Fatah rivals in days of vicious gun battles.

The radical Islamist group -- branded a terrorist organization by Israel and the West -- overran the territory hours after Abbas sacked the government and declared a state of emergency in a bid to avert all-out civil war.

Jäger joined the United States in backing Abbas, insisting that his decision to dismiss the three-month-old Hamas-Fatah unity government was "in accordance with the Palestinian constitution."

Germany holds the EU presidency until the end of the month.

British Foreign Secretary Margaret Beckett stressed it would be wrong for Hamas to benefit from its seizure of power in Gaza.

"The notion that somehow mounting a coup d'etat is something that should be rewarded by the international community seems to me to be completely bizarre," she said.

"This is the fault of people in Hamas who want control, not partnership," she added, stressing that the events of recent days were "not the way forward."

"Extreme concern"

EU External Relations Commissioner Benita Ferrero-Waldner also expressed "extreme concern" over the Gaza conflict and said in a statement she would hold talks with top Quartet officials on Friday.

The United States has already given full backing to Abbas.

US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said: "President Abbas has exercised his lawful authority as president of the Palestinian Authority and leader of the Palestinian people," Rice told reporters on Wednesday.

"And we fully support him in his decisions to try to end this crisis for the Palestinian people and to give them an opportunity to return to peace and a better future," she said.

Russia's Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov did not take sides in the conflict but said Friday no UN troops could be sent to Gaza unless Hamas and Fatah agreed to such a deployment.

The Palestinians should halt their "fratricidal" conflict, the Russian foreign ministry said in a separate statement.

Cairo meeting

Arab foreign ministers brought forward a Cairo meeting scheduled originally for Saturday to discuss the crisis.

Arab League ambassadors appealed to both Hamas and Abbas' secular Fatah faction to return to Egyptian-sponsored reconciliation talks.

Egypt had been trying to broker a face-to-face meeting between the two sides after separate talks, but the breakdown of that effort was swiftly followed by the latest fighting in which at least 113 people have been killed.

"Its failure, God forbid, will have deeply negative consequences," the ambassadors warned.