A member of Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat's Fatah movement was killed and six others wounded in a clash with gunmen believed to be Islamists in a refugee camp in south Lebanon, Palestinian sources said. Using rocket-propelled grenades and assault rifles, the gunmen staged the surprise raid on the Fatah headquarters at the main entrance of the Ain al-Helweh camp on the outskirts of the southern port city of Sidon, the sources told AFP. The Fatah militants at the headquarters and others at the nearby camp entrance checkpoint returned fire and the shootout lasted for about 10 minutes.

One Fatah militant was killed and six others were wounded and taken to hospital, the sources said.

Fatah reinforcements were sent to the northern entrance of the camp where clashes broke out again briefly, the sources said.

Maher Shabayta, the Fatah representative in Ain al-Helweh, told AFP that "the exact identity of the gunmen is still unknown, but they came from the western side of the camp, which is under the control of Islamic movements."

Fatah's representative in the Sidon area, Khaled Aref, told AFP that the gunmen seemed to be from the Dinniyeh Group and called on them to surrender or face the likelihood of attack.

"We are engaged in negotiations with all factions at the camp, including Palestinian Islamic groups, to ask for an immediate surrender because we do not want to use force," he said.

A number of Lebanese Sunni fundamentalists accused of links with the al-Qaeda network of Osama bin Laden are believed to have sought refuge at the camp since the Lebanese army repressed an Islamic rebellion in the northern Dinniyeh mountains in January 2000.

Tension has been high at Ain al-Helweh camp since Islamic groups were forced to hand over on July 16 Lebanese fundamentalist Badih Hamade, who was accused of killing three Lebanese army intelligence officers.

Last Tuesday, various Palestinian factions, including the mainstream Fatah movement, said they wanted to get rid of Lebanese Islamists believed to be hiding at Ain el-Helweh.

In the last two weeks, there have been four bomb attacks against Fatah targets in Lebanon, including one that damaged the home of Khaled al-Shayeb, the group's chief for the Bekaa Valley.

About 376,000 Palestinian refugees live in Lebanon, most of them at the country's 12 squalid refugee camps that were set up after Israel's creation in 1948.

Lebanese authorities have not entered the Palestinian refugee camps since 1969, but maintain a tight security presence around them.

PHOTO CAPTION

Palestinian fighter stands near the damaged home of Khaled al-Shayeb