A Fatah official on Wednesday announced that Hamas will allow the Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas' party members in Gaza to travel to the West Bank to attend their movement's congress.

However, an official from Hamas, which controls the Gaza Strip, denied that the Islamic movement had allowed the Gaza-based Fatah members to travel to Bethlehem.

"The reports that Hamas has agreed to let Fatah members out are untrue," said Sami Abu Zuhri, a spokesman for Hamas.

He reiterated that Fatah members could leave Gaza if pro-Abbas forces freed all jailed Hamas supporters in the West Bank and sent blank passports to Hamas' administration to help the Islamic movement issue news passports for the Gazans.

Earlier, Ibraheem Abu al-Najja, Fatah representative in Gaza, told Xinhua that Fatah members will leave Gaza Wednesday noon due to pressures from Arab nations on Hamas to lift the travel ban on Fatah activists.

Fatah's sixth general conference is due to convene in the holy city of Bethlehem on August 4. In Gaza, at least 400 Fatah members await Hamas' permission to attend the movement's first general conference in 20 years.

Hamas has been controlling Gaza since it routed pro-Abbas forces and ousted Fatah in June 2007. As a result of the political split between Gaza and the West Bank, Hamas and Fatah have been cracking down against their political dissidents in each one's territory.

(Xinhua News Agency July 30, 2009)